Team Dysfunctional
by Hyper Deathray
Summary: Stuck between an Uchiha and a loudmouth, this is Hyuuga Hinata’s story, on Team 7. UPDATE: FINISHED.
1. prologue

**Team Dysfunctional**

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Naruto, Kishimoto Masashi does.

**Rating: **PG

**Summary: **Stuck between an Uchiha and a loudmouth, this is Hyuuga Hinata's story, on Team 7.

**-----**

**Prologue: I'm With Who?!**

"Next, Team 7." Iruka declared.

"Uzumaki Naruto."

_Me?_

_Him? _

_Naruto-kun?_

"Uchiha Sasuke."

_I'm with Sasuke?_

_I'm with Naruto?_

_Sasuke-san?_

"Hyuuga Hinata."

_Huh, Hinata?_

_Her?_

_W-What?!_

-----

**Next: Chapter 1**


	2. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1: Interruptions All the Time**

**-----**

After Iruka dismissed the class, groups of genin immediately started chattering with each other. Some groups knew each other well, some not so much. Team 7 could probably win the award for the group where no one knew the other at all.

As soon as class was dismissed, Sasuke got up, and ignoring Sakura's imploring voice to do something or another, quietly slipped out of the room for lunch. The less time he spent in the same room with those raving fangirls, the better.

Sitting in the row farthest back, Hinata watched him go. _Oh, Sasuke-san is leaving._ _I'm sure he'll introduce himself later._ With one last glance at the Uchiha, she turned to her other teammate. _Oh, Naruto-kun is getting up now. Maybe He'll notice me and come and say hello._

Next to Naruto, Sakura was still pissed that _she_ wasn't the one on Sasuke-kun's team. She turned and looked at Hinata, who promptly smiled shyly and looked away. _Lucky girl._ Oh well, try as she might, Hyuuga Hinata was just too damn nice for her to be jealous at. And with that, Sakura went to talk with Kiba and Shino before Naruto could get in a word. Besides, Sakura thought darkly, she was still better off than Ino. _Ino, you pig, let's see you try and boss around that lazy slacker and the fatass. _

Ten feet away, Chouji sensed a disturbance in the Force.

Naruto signed. Still no luck with his Sakura-chan. Could this day get any worse? His teammate was Uchiha Sasuke. It just wasn't fair. He just had to be stuck with the one guy that could do everything _perfectly._ He'd do whatever the teachers wanted him to do and made it look easy to boot. And then the teachers would give him an 'A'. The boys would try to be like him. The girls would look at him with those big, wide eyes and he would just put his hands in his pants and walk away without a word.

And when he tried to be like Sasuke, he'd screw up and everyone would laugh at him.

_Damned Sasuke,_ he thought, with frustration, envy, and jealousy. _Oh yeah, I forgot about Hinata._

Hinata looked at Naruto adoringly as Sakura left him. _Oh, Naruto-kun, you really like Sakura-san don't you? Don't be sad, I really think once she gets to know you better, she'll like you. Like I do. Do your best, Naruto-kun! _Hinata wasn't jealous at Sakura. _What makes Naruto-kun happy makes me happy too._ And then Naruto looked at her straight in the eye. _O-oh, N-Naruto-kun is looking at me. I should smile. O-or maybe wave? _She smiled weakly and raised her hand tentatively. Naruto beamed and started marching up the steps towards her while shouting her name. _Oh, n-now he's coming closer. I never thought that-I mean, I never really thought-,_ Hinata's hands shook and her heart was pounding like mad. Naruto was actually going to talk to her!

Naruto looked at the timid girl who was looking away from him. _What's the matter with her?_ Maybe she was looking at something else. _I guess I'll just have to get her attention!_ He bent down until his face was level with her face and shouted, "Hey Hinata! I'm right here!"

Hinata slowly turned her eyes to face Naruto's. "Oh, hello. I-I'm Hyuuga Hinata...I know we've never talked before so l-let's talk and get to know each other".

"Ok!" Naruto was always happy to talk about himself. He jumped up and over the desk and landed straight in the chair next to Hinata. "My name is Uzumaki Naruto and I've going to be the next Hokage! I like ramen. My favorite ramen is from the Ichimaru Ramen shop. Oh, and I hate Sasuke. Your turn."

"I'm Hyuuga Hinata." Hinata was relieved that she was breathing easier now. She had summoned up all her courage and she was going to do it. She was going to have a conversation! "I want to be stronger and I want my father to proud of me. And I-".

"Huh?" Naruto's eyes suddenly focused on Sakura, who had finished talking to her team and was leaving. "Listen Hinata, it was great talking to you. We'll talk talk again soon, I promise. But right now, I got something else to do, bye!" And with that, Naruto left and ran after Sakura.

Left by herself, Hinata signed. _Next time, _she told herself. _I'm sure there'll be a next time._

------

"Listen up," Ino barked at her two teammates. They weren't up to her standards yet, but never fear, she'd break them. "As long as we're in the same group, you two will do as I say."

"Yeah, sure." Shikamaru replied in between bites at his onigiri. _I don't want to waste my time arguing with Ino._ Between his mother and Ino, he was beginning to think all women were naturally bossy and dominating figures to be put up with. Now why couldn't he and Chouji have been teamed up with that Hyuuga girl?

"Let's all eat barbeque sometimes." Chouji happily stated, eager to make friends with Ino. And food equals friendship, right?

"Oh, geez," Ino moaned. Just look at what she had to work with. It was going to be hard molding these two losers into her soldiers but she would. Oh she would. _So you think I got the short end of the stick, eh Sakura? We'll see about that. _And when she would show them off in front of Sakura one day, she promised not to laugh out loud when Pink Forehead Girl's face turned red with jealousy.

"Naruto!" Shikamaru exclaimed. The scruffy orange kid was trying to sneak toward the open window that Sasuke was leaning against while he ate. What prank was that troublesome guy planning now? And not with Uchiha Sasuke, Ino would never let him hear the end of it. But oh no, Naruto jumped right on top of Sasuke and grappled him down. The window closed behind them.

"Naruto, you're going to get it if you hurt Sasuke-kun!" Ino promised. _Yep, that's basically what I thought._ And just as he was about to take his lunch and split before Ino's inevitable meltdown, Sasuke climbed out of the window and jumped away without a scratch on him.

"Sasuke must have won the fight." Shikamaru remarked.

"Of course," Ino answered, ever ready to heap praise on her idol. "Naruto is no match for Sasuke-kun."

"Looks like Team 7 aren't getting along very well." Chouji remarked before mechanically chomping on another onigiri.

_Oh no, Chouji._ Shikamaru thought to himself. _You just had to remind her that she didn't take Hinata's place. _Indeed, Ino's face just lit up, and not in the cheerful way either.

"That wouldn't be the case if I was there instead." Ino growled. "I'd break him. I'd break that Naruto." And she just stayed that way for a few seconds, huffing and puffing. Shikamaru didn't say a word, and even Chouji got the hint.

"Oh well," Ino said after she calmed on. "I can't believe it, but I think I envy Hinata." And then she turned her gaze toward the two boys. A smirk appeared. "Also, I have you two to work on."

_Oh joy..._ Shikamaru thought, silently accepting that he was Ino's property. Chouji behind him swallowed without meaning to.

------

Hinata walked around the academy, looking for either of her new teammates. She hoped to speak with them both first before their assigned jounin teacher arrived. _Who will that be? _She wondered idly. _Oh, there's Sasuke-san._

Sasuke ran right past her while holding his stomach in pain. He bolted through the boy's bathroom door and slammed it shut. _Should I go check if he's all right?_ She made her way to the bathroom door and knocked, feeling awkward and embarrassed. "Um, Sasuke-san, are you all right?"

Inside the bathroom stall, Naruto froze. _Dammit, I don't need this right now. _And with that thought in mind, he grit his teeth and squeezed until a big one came out. Finally, the weird stomachache that came out of nowhere went away. _I almost got that kiss, dammit! __**Henge**_

"Uhh, no I'm not all right." Naruto answered mischievously while masquerading as Sasuke. "You see, Hinata, my body is actually really weak and I get sick like this all the time."

"Really?" Hinata asked. Oh poor Sasuke-san! Being sick all the time! And living alone too!

"Oh yeah!" Now Naruto was really getting into it. Now that he could finally do it, Henge no Jutsu was _fun_. "I like putting my hands into my pockets because I'm afraid of touching people's germs. And I don't like to smile because just breathing could make me sick." _Hehehe. This is fun. And it gives me an idea about what to do with Sakura-chan…_ "Anyway, could you leave me alone for a while?"

"Okay!" _Afraid to touch people? Afraid to breathe? How awful for him._ Hinata thought in sympathy. _He's my teammate now. I have to do something!_ And with her heart full of mercy, she ran towards home as fast as possible.

------

"So this is Naruto's house." Kakashi said as he looked around.

"Sasuke, the one from the Uchiha clan and Hinata from the Hyuuga clan are also going to be on your team." The Hokage told him. "Good luck."

The milk carton on the dining table caught Kakashi's eye. "This milk is way past its expiration date." He noted after picking up and examining it. "One sip will send him straight to the toilet."

-----

"God dammit!" Naruto shouted as the stomachache came back again. "What the hell is going on?"

-----

Sasuke looked down dubiously at Hinata's offering. She had cradled in her arms a basket full of drugs of one kind or another.

"Thanks," He said, not wanting to be rude. Picking through the basket, he found a surgical mask, rubber gloves, and a 'Get Well' card with tiny hand-drawn hearts in red.

_What the hell is going on?_

-----

**To be continued**


	3. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2: Learn to Swim - Sink or Float**

**------**

After Sasuke had dragged Naruto in front of him and demanded an explanation, the three members of Team 7 went back to the classroom to wait for the new jounin sensei. That had been hours ago.

"He's late." Naruto grumbled while he swiveled his head left and right through the opened classroom door, looking for anyone walking down the hallway. Sasuke and Hinata chose to sit and wait.

"Maybe you'd like to sit down with us, Naruto-kun?" Hinata offered. "I'm sure he'll come."

"But why is our teacher the only one late?" Naruto asked indignantly, irritated that they were still here. "All the other groups already left and Iruka-sensei already went home!"

"That's true." Hinata said with a little disappointment. _I'm sure nobody forgot us._ "But I sure if we waited a bi-. What are you doing, Naruto-kun?"

Naruto was jamming the blackboard eraser between the door and the frame while standing on top of a chair for height. "It's his fault for being late." Naruto answered with a grin, already tasting his revenge on this late loser.

"But we shouldn't…" Hinata implored, greatly scandalized by the idea. You can't do this to teachers! "I mean…we could…"

"Jounin aren't going to for a simple booby trap like that." Sasuke said flatly, speaking for the first time in a while. Besides, he was still pissed about what happened earlier.

"That's not what I meant." Hinata answered. "I mean if we…"

And at that moment a fingerless gloved hand slid open the door, and the eraser fell…on top of the man's head. For a few seconds there was silence by all four people.

"He fell for it!" Naruto shouted between giggles, blatantly pointing at the man with the white hair. "Oh man, he fell for it!"

"Oh, I'm so sorry, sensei." Hinata tried to apologize. _Oh this can't be happening._ "You see, we were…I mean, you were late. So…Oh, I'm so sorry, sensei."

Sasuke said nothing. _Is he really a jounin?_ Sasuke's respect for his new teacher just dropped considerably.

The man ignored both Naruto's laughter and Hinata's pleadings. He calmly reached down and picked up the eraser. "My first impression of you guys," He said, looking down at the three little troublemakers. "I hate you."

_Yeah, well same to you._

_Hmph. So what?_

_H-Hate me?_

-----

"Well then," Their new teacher began speaking, after assembling them onto the roof. He leaned against the iron railing while the three of them sat in front of him. "Why don't you all introduce yourselves then."

"Introduce ourselves?" Hinata asked. "What should we say?"

"What you like, hate, your dreams, and hobbies." Their teacher answered. "Something like that."

"Hey, hey." Naruto spoke up. "Why don't you introduce yourself first, sensei." _Who is this old-looking guy anyway? I thought only guys like the Hokage had hair like that._

_Well, our sensei is mysterious looking. So it's only fair that he introduces himself. _Hinata wondered about the man's hair, and that mask. _With that eye covered, he almost looks like a pirate. _Hinata almost shivered. _No, I can't. I'm a ninja now. I can't be afraid of such a silly thing...like p-pirates._

"Me?" The man pointed to himself. "My name is Hatake Kakashi. I don't intend to tell you my likes or dislikes."

"Huh?" Naruto and Hinata said.

_What kind of introduction is that?_ Naruto thought.

"As for my dreams..." Kakashi tried to think of something appropriate for twelve year olds to hear, but no such thing came to mind. _Icha Icha Paradise movie director is on a Need To Know basis. _"I have few hobbies." And he left it at that.

_So all we know is his name. _Hinata thought, a little disappointed.

"Now it's your turn." Kakashi told them. He looked straight at Naruto. "We'll start with you."

"My name is Uzumaki Naruto." Naruto started happily talking about himself. "I like cup ramen. But I like the from the Ichimaru Ramen shop even more. I hate the three minutes I have to wait after pouring in the water. My hobby is to eat and compare cup ramen!" Now Naruto was really getting into it. Most of the time, people never wanted to talk to him so when they gave him the chance to, he seized it. "And my dream is to become even greater than the Hokages! I'm going to make all the villagers recognize my existence."

_I see. He grew up in an interesting way._ Kakashi noted. "Alright." His one eye focused on Hinata now. "Next."

"My name is Hyuuga Hinata." Hinata had none of Naruto's exuberance, Kakashi noted. The poor girl couldn't even meet his gaze. "I like…I mean, I don't dislike…"

"It's all right, Hinata." Kakashi told her reassuringly. _She's definitely not the eager-to-talk type like Naruto, and nervous at speaking to a crowd. _"Don't think too hard and just say what comes to mind."

"I…my dream for my father to be proud of me." Hinata blurted out and lowered her head. She feared that she had just embarrassed herself in front of her teammates. _Compared to Naruto-kun, I sound so…weak. _She admired his spirit and desperately wanted his self-confidence.

"Very good." Kakashi congratulated her with a smile, or as much as a smile could be expressed with one eye. It did make Hinata look up and smile back. "Last guy."

Sasuke didn't bother looking up, and simply started talking. "My name is Uchiha Sasuke." Sasuke's tone was cold and indifferent to the whole thing. "There are a lot of things I hate and there aren't a lot that I like."

_Not the sociable type, eh?_ Kakashi appraised the Uchiha boy.

"Also, I have an ambition that I have no intention to leave as just a dream." Sasuke continued. "The revival of my clan…and to kill a certain man." There was silence all around as everyone just looked at him. Sasuke just kept looking ahead.

_I hope he's not talking about me._ Naruto thought nervously to himself. Sasuke wasn't still mad at him, right?

_To kill, a certain man?_ Hinata wondered nervously. _I never knew that. Sasuke-san never said such a thing before._

_Just as I thought. _He was going to have to keep an eye on this one, Kakashi thought. He had wondered just what the last of the Uchiha clan was like; Itachi had thrown that name away. Now he knew.

"Alright, you three have different personalities. I like that." Kakashi shouted cheerfully to take Naruto and Hinata's attention back to him. Actually, he wondered just who had constructed this team anyway. They really did make an odd bunch. A team that looked like three different people stuck together, none of whom had even talked to each other before today. Oh well, he wasn't getting paid to construct teams. He _was _getting paid to bend them and see if they broke. _Time to begin._ "We're going to begin a mission starting tomorrow."

"Hah!" Naruto snapped a sloppy looking salute with his right hand, cheerfully grinning. "What kind of mission, sir?!"

"First, we're going to do something else." Kakashi interrupted. _The pain starts from here._

"What? What? What?" Naruto's good spirits just couldn't be stopped. "What is it?"

"Survival training." Kakashi answered cryptically.

"Survival training?" Naruto asked him, now confused, like he had just broken open a treasure chest only to find an IOU.

"But sensei," Hinata spoke out. "We already had survival training."

"This is no ordinary training." Kakashi told her.

"Then what kind of training is it?" Naruto asked, still confused. _What about the missions? I want to see what's outside the village!_

Kakashi started to chuckle. Oh, this was going to be good…

"Sensei?" Hinata asked, now as confused as Naruto.

"Well, you see," Kakashi explained, his voice still full of laughter. "I know you three are going to be surprised when you hear this." And then Kakashi got serious and dropped the bombshell. "Out of the twenty-seven graduates, only nine are going to become genin. The other eighteen are going to be sent back to the academy. In other words, this training is a test with a dropout rate of sixty-six percent."

The reaction was just what he was hoping for. Naruto balked at his words. Hinata looked at him with big uncomprehending eyes. Even the Uchiha kid raised his head to glare at him. "See," Kakashi told them cheerfully. "I told you it would be a surprise!"

"No way! I went through so much trouble…" Naruto shouted, shocked. _Sixty-six percent?! I thought all you had to do was pass the Henge test. I don't want to go back! _"Then what was the final exam for?"

"That?" Kakashi remarked. Yep, looked like he had their undivided attention now. "That just picks out candidates qualified to become genin."

"What?!" Naruto shouted back, outraged. _Cheated! I've been cheated, dammit!_

"Anyway, I'm going to determine if you pass or fail tomorrow on the training ground." Kakashi continued, ignoring Naruto's outburst altogether. He looked so cute when he was angry. Like a lion cub that tried to roar, but only a meow came out. "We meet tomorrow at 5:00 AM. Bring your ninja gear."

_I'm not going to drop out because of this thing. _Naruto vowed to himself. This year he'd come closer than ever before. He'd finally out what he was and that he wasn't alone in this world. It mattered. He'd prove that it mattered. _I'll show him what I can do! I will!_

_I have to pass._ Hinata told herself. _I have to show father that I'm not a disgrace to the Hyuuga name. _She looked at Naruto. _Also, I'm on the same team as Naruto-kun. I can't disgrace myself in front of the person I admire, like with father._

_I will not be stopped by something like this,_ Sasuke promised. _I can't waste a year back there when I've already learned everything. _He had dedicated himself into the academy since he was seven, trusting that his efforts would bring him the goal that he set for himself, on that day, on that riverbank.

"Well then, meeting's over." Kakashi dismissed them. One more piece fun to be had with these three, though. "Oh, and don't eat breakfast. You'll throw up."

-----

The pre-dawn sky was still dark as the three genin with backpacks slung over their shoulders approached the training field. As they waited, an hour passed. Then another. The sun rose and the dark sky gave way to a bright and sunny day. Naruto had fallen asleep on the grass. Sitting beside him, Hinata was anxiously wondering if they had been forgotten. Sasuke stood stoically and waited.

More hours passed until the sun was well above the horizon and still no Kakashi in sight. Finally, a white-haired figure came into view.

"Good morning." Kakashi cheerfully greeted.

"You're late!" Naruto immediately screamed at him.

"Well, a black cat crossed my path." Kakashi replied apologetically. "So…" His voice trailed off when he saw that the three of them just gawked at him. Deciding to cut his losses, he cleared his throat. "Let's move on."

Naruto, Sasuke, and Hinata watched, slightly confused, as Kakashi walked over to a tree stump and set down an alarm clock. "Alright." Kakashi stated loudly. "The alarm is set for 12:00 PM." Next, he dangled a pair of bells in front of himself. "Today's training is to get one of these bells from me." He jingled them slightly at the three of them. "Whoever can't do that gets no lunch."

"What?" Naruto squawked.

_Time to __**really **__get sadistic._ Kakashi pointed at the three logs staked to the ground to their right. "I'm going to tie you to those, and eat lunch right in front of you."

The three genin gawked at him as if they had been sucker punched.

_So that's why he said…_Sasuke realized now.

…_Don't eat breakfast._ Hinata thought. Then she noticed something else. "But sensei," She asked him. "Why are there only two bells?"

"Since there are only two," Kakashi answered with an expectant grin. "At least one of you will _have_ to be tied to the log." _Now to really make them sweat_. "That person will have failed the mission. He or she will have to go back to the academy." He jingled the bells again, as if taunting the three with bait.

_I have to get one of those bells. _Sasuke decided with immediate finality. _Going back to the academy…_

…_Isn't an option! _Naruto vowed furiously.

_I see. _Hinata noted with growing insecurity of her future. _I have to compete with Naruto-kun and Sasuke-san. _

"It might be one, or all three. You can use your shuriken. You won't get anywhere without the will to kill me." Kakashi finished. _And that's that._ He'd pushed these three into the water and now they would either sink or float.

"But that's dangerous, sensei." Hinata objected. None of the students had ever thrown weapons at other people with death in mind before. Her eyes wandered to Sasuke…

"Yeah!" Naruto jeered at Kakashi. "You couldn't even dodge that chalk eraser!"

_Well, that pretty much answers who did that._ Kakashi's lazy left mind narrowed at him. _Not that there was much doubt about it. Let's make an example of this one. _"Those who don't actually have many skills tend to boast the most." Kakashi taunted back calmly. "It's best to just ignore the guy at the bottom." If he had read Naruto correctly, that should send the loudmouth up and running. "We'll start on my on my mark."

Just as he thought, Naruto pulled a kunai and charged him, screaming. Kakashi calmly waited for Naruto to get closer. He didn't move away. He simply disappeared.

The next thing Naruto knew was that someone gripped his right hand from behind and another hand gripped the back of his head. "Don't be so hasty," Kakashi scolded, standing behind him. "I didn't say to start yet." Both Sasuke and Hinata backed away from Kakashi, slowly.

_Fast._ Sasuke thought to himself. Kakashi's performance gave him a measure of how hard it would be to take one of the bells. _I couldn't see him move._

_This is the power of a jounin._ Hinata thought in awe. _Our teacher moves like father does._ With that thought, Hinata's insecurities grew. Hinata worshiped her father, and yet knew that she was not what he had wanted. If her teacher could move like her father, what chance did she have?

"Looks like you have the will to kill me now." Kakashi said after releasing Naruto. This was good. They were eyeing him with a lot more respect; or fear, but he'd take that too. _I'm starting to like you three. _"We're going to start." He declared loudly. The three genin tensed like loaded springs, waiting for Kakashi to say the word.

_Come on,_ Naruto thought with anticipation. _I want a rematch!_

"Start!"

-----

**To be continued**


	4. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3: Learn to Swim - Sink or Float, Part II**

**-----**

Standing on the riverbank, Kakashi considered the situation. _It's common sense for a shinobi to conceal his presence and hide. _At the moment, Sasuke was looking down at Kakashi while hidden in the trees. Hinata was crawling under a patch of bushes. And Naruto…remained to be seen. _Looks like everyone's hidden nicely… _That train of thought left him when he realized someone to his left. And there stood Naruto.

"Let's have a match fair and square!" Naruto shouted, while standing tall like some superhero challenging the bad guys. Kakashi just gawked at him.

Above them both, hidden in the trees, Sasuke watched. _That idiot._

"Hey," Kakashi answered, still a little bewildered. "Aren't you a little weird compared to the rest?"

"What's weird is your hair." Naruto retorted back. Then, with a scream, charged forward. Kakashi calmly watched him coming. _Looks like he didn't learn much from last time. _Kakashi noted as his right hand grasped into the pouch strapped to his pants. _That's fine. I'm a harsh teacher._ Naruto noticed Kakshi's action and hurriedly backed away.

"Shinobi Tactic #1, taijutsu." Kakashi lectured at him. "I'll teach you that first."

_But isn't taijutsu hand-to-hand combat without weapons? _Naruto wondered. _Then why is he reaching for a weapon?_ Oh, well. Whatever it was, he was going kick this guy's ass!

Kakashi's hand fished around a bit before finding what he wanted and exposed the sweet literature of _Icha Icha Paradise_ to the rest of the world, which at the moment happened to be three twelve year olds.

_Huh? _Naruto thought to himself as Kakashi started reading. "What's the matter?" Kakashi asked Naruto without much interest while his eye was buried in the book. "Come and get me."

"But, um…" Naruto asked. "Why did you take out a book?"

"Why?" Kakashi answered, again in his disinterested voice. "Because I want to find out what happens next." _Duh. _Kakashi then turned his back on Naruto. _"_Don't worry about it." He continued as indifferently as before. "It's all the same to me whether I read this or not."

_This guy…_ Naruto realized with growing anger as his hands closed into fists. _This guy's just making fun of me!_ He charged forward again. "I'm going to kick your ass!" Naruto closed in on Kakashi and suddenly jumped while screaming his head off, intending to knock some sense into Kakashi's head with a flying punch from behind. Kakashi's right hand shot out and blocked the punch. His left hand held onto _Icha Icha Paradise_ and never moved.

Naruto growled in frustration as he landed and launched a roundhouse kick at Kakashi's face. Kakashi simply squatted down and once again dodged Naruto's attack. _Oh, come on!_ Naruto thought as he punched at Kakashi again. And suddenly, Kakashi wasn't in front of him anymore.

"Huh?" Naruto wondered to himself as his fist hit nothing but thin air. Behind him, Kakashi closed his book. _Playtime's over, Naruto._

"Ninja shouldn't let an enemy get behind him multiple times, idiot." Kakashi scolded him, squatting behind Naruto, his hands already formed in a seal.

_The seal for the tiger? _Hiding under the bushes, Hinata gasped in horror. _Kakashi-sensei is going to use ninjutsu on Naruto-kun?_

_That seal is for fire jutsu, _Sasuke thought as he recognized the seal. _This teacher isn't going to just run around?_

"Naruto-kun, please run!" Hinata suddenly shouted out of concern. "Or you'll die!"

"Too slow," Kakashi noted. _Thank you, Jiraiya-sama. For passing this jutsu to my teacher, the Fourth Hokage, and thus to me. _"Konoha's secret taijustu ougi…!"

"**A Thousand Years of Pain!!!"**

Naruto was launched into the sky clutching his behind by Kakashi's jutsu. He flew briefly before gravity sent him crashing into the river.

_Two idiots…_ Sasuke thought, exasperated.

_So sorry, Naruto-kun._ Hinata thought weakly, embarrassed for Naruto and for herself. _I guess I was wrong._

And with the final splash, Kakashi opened _Icha Icha Paradise_ again and continued with the story where he left off, like the whole incident never happened. _Cool off, hothead._

Sasuke reached for his shuriken, seeing an opportunity to attack since Kakashi continued to read with his back turned without moving.

_Strong. He's strong. _Hinata thought fearfully. _What can we-what can I do? _

_Dammit, it wasn't suppose to end like this…_ Naruto thought as the force of his fall carried him down to the bottom. _I said I was going to kick his ass, dammit!_

Out of the calmly flowing river, two shuriken suddenly flew up toward Kakashi. Without taking his eyes off the pages, his right hand shot up and neatly caught the shuriken, his fingers poking through the hole in their center as they slowly stopped rotating. Sasuke moved his hand away from his shuriken holster.

Naruto popped out of the river, coughing and gasping for air. "What's wrong?" Kakashi taunted him as Naruto crawled his way onto the riverbank. "You won't get lunch if you can't get a bell by noon."

"I know that!" Naruto retorted back, looking miserable with his hair drooping with water and his clothes soaked.

"You said you were going to become even greater than the Hokages," Kakashi kept taunting poor Naruto. "But your actions say otherwise."

Naruto's stomach growled fiercely. "Dammit!" Naruto shouted. "I can still fight even if I'm hungry!"

Naruto's hunger reminded Sasuke and Hinata of theirs. _That's right._ Hinata thought as she remembered Kakashi's last instruction yesterday. _Please excuse me, but that was unnecessarily cruel, sensei._

_That bastard._ Sasuke thought simply.

"I was just caught off guard a minute ago!" Naruto shouted as Kakashi simply walked away, unimpressed. _Don't look down at me, dammit!_ "I'm hungry so I'm not fighting at full power. But I have to get a bell no matter what!" Now instead of looking like an insult, Kakashi's back looked like a goal, and Naruto drew strength from that as he gritted his teeth in determination. "I can't fail here no matter what! I'm going to become a ninja!"

With those words, six more Narutos burst up from the river. That did get Kakashi's attention. They growled hungrily as they dived down on Kakashi. "This is my best jutsu," Naruto shouted at him. "Tajuu Kage Buushin no Jutsu!"

_There are seven of them? _Hinata wondered. "Byakugan!" _What! They're all real?!_

"Shadow clones instead of regular clones?" Kakashi noted, still with one hand calmly holding onto his book. _This must be what he used to defeat Mizuki. From his abilities, he can only use that for a minute. _Kakashi deduced as the shadow clones closed in. _Even if he talks big, Naruto is still Naruto. He can't get me. _

The moment Kakashi finished that train of thought, he felt someone jump onto his back from behind, holding him down. "What?" Kakashi wondered, all his complacency lost. "From behind?"

From behind him, Naruto snickered. "Ninja shouldn't let an enemy get behind him," Naruto taunted evilly. "Right, Kakashi-sensei?" Now six other clones in front of Kakashi grabbed onto his legs while the real Naruto jumped high into the air. "I used Kage Buushin." The real Naruto continued their conversation with a fist ready. "And made one of them sneak up on you from behind from downstream. Now I'm going to pay you back for attacking my butt!"

_A feint, eh? _Sasuke thought, admiring the plan. Maybe Naruto wasn't as hopeless as he looked all the time.

_That's right, Naruto-kun._ Hinata thought in admiration as she watched. _You do your best. You never give up. I shouldn't doubt our team. We can pass! _ She smiled as Naruto's example of determination calmed her and erased doubts that she had been feeling.

"I'm going to punch you!" Naruto declared at the trapped Kakashi. And then he brought his fist of revenge at the humiliation he had been forced to suffer…on himself. He stared, confused, as the one who was flying backward from his punch was one of his clones. "Huh?"

"You…" Naruto said dumbfounded until an idea came to him. "You're Kakashi-sensei! You used Henge!" That statement sent all the clones plus the real Naruto into a free-for-all as they grappled, punched, and clawed at one another on the ground like a giant mass of orange while accusing each other of being the imposter.

"You are!"

"No _you_ are!"

"You're the one who smells like him!"

"You old man!"

"Hey, hey!" One of them tried to shout above the commotion. "Let's just undo the jutsu! Then we'll know who's who."

"Why didn't you notice that, idiot?" Another one complained as the brawl continued.

"You _are_ me, you idiot!" The first one shouted back. "I'm undoing it now." All seven clones disappeared in puffs of smoke, leaving a bruised and battered Naruto, but no Kakashi in sight.

_That was the replacement technique, idiot. _Sasuke thought as the unsightly brawl ended. Maybe he expected too much from Naruto.

_Well, that was still a good plan._ Hinata tried weakly to find something positive about what happened.

Naruto just stood there gloomily for a few seconds until he saw something sparkle and glitter on the ground. He took a closer look. "A bell?!" He shouted at the miraculous discovery. Naruto's mood quickly turned around. "He must have been in a hurry and dropped one." And then, laughing at his good fortune, he rushed forward and bent down to pick up his prize.

The next thing he knew, Naruto felt himself being hoisted into the air by his feet. He tried to move them, but they were stuck. "What the hell is this?!" He shouted as he looked down at the ground from several feet up in the air upside down.

_It's a trap. _Sasuke thought as his almost nonexistent respect for Naruto's competence dropped again in the last five minutes.

_W-well, that was a good plan too._ Hinata told herself, even as Naruto thrashed against the rope holding his feet to the tree branch.

"The bell!" Naruto screamed petulantly as he dangled above the ground. A hand from below snatched the bell away.

"Use your jutsu after thinking carefully." Kakashi lectured the genin as he hung. "Also, don't fall for an obvious trap, stupid."

Naruto didn't seem to take Kakashi's condescending way of beating wisdom into his students well as he thrashed even more. "Ninja need to look underneath the underneath." He continued to lecture.

"I already know!" Naruto shouted down petulantly.

"I'm telling you this because you don't get it." Kakashi told him, patience running low with Naruto. "Get it?"

_Now's my chance! _Sasuke thought furiously as Kakashi leisurely kept lecturing. _He finally dropped his guard!_ From his hiding place, Sasuke threw a volley of kunai and shuriken at Kakashi's unguarded back. The flying steel of death cut through the air toward the jounin.

_Sasuke-san is attacking!_ Through her byakugan, Hinata watched as Sasuke threw the projectiles.

"You're so-" Kakashi was interrupted as all of the weapons struck him. Hinata gaped at the suddenness and viciousness of Sasuke's attack. _Kakashi-sensei was hit… _She thought in horror.

"He got hit!" Naruto shouted. How was a dead teacher going to help him pass? "Sasuke, you bastard! You overdid it!"

Kakashi fell back with blood squirting, seemingly dead. However, a puff of smoke revealed only a log, with kunai and shuriken sticking out.

_Damn it! _Sasuke berated himself silently as he jumped away from his hiding place as fast as possible. _He used another replacement? He must have determined my location from the shuriken attack. _He kept jumping through the forest as he analyzed what just happened. _He dropped his guard on purpose and I fell for his trap. _

_So Sasuke-san's attack didn't work either. _Hinata thought as she watched Sasuke retreat away. _Kakashi-sensei has already figured out his hiding place. _Hinata's byakugan eyes could clearly see Kakashi squatting behind a bush as he watched Sasuke retreat. _But he doesn't know mine yet, right?_ She remembered her warning to Naruto and wondered if Kakashi had noticed where it had came from. Then, Kakashi turned away from Sasuke and toward her. He smiled and waved.

_Oh no!_ Hinata thought as she panicked. _He knows! Wait, or does he only guess? Oh, he's coming over here!_ Kakashi was slowly walking over toward Hinata's position under the bushes, eerily smiling at the same time. _Should I run? Or should I fight? Maybe if I stay silent, he won't find anything? Or should I free Naruto-kun or follow Sasuke-san? Kakashi-sensei is too strong to fight alone. What should I do? _Hinata's heart pounded in her chest as her mind tried to pick something to do and her body was frozen in fear.

Kakashi's hands parted the bush and he stuck into the opening. "Found you, Hinata." He announced happily. "Huh?" He had found Hinata, but he didn't expect to find her unconscious. _Did she faint?_ Kakashi wondered. _I knew she was here and I thought she probably wouldn't react well to being under pressure. That's why I tested her by walking over menacingly like that. I guess I overdid it too._ He thought sheepishly. _Now then, one loud idiot down and one shy girl down. _From Hinata's formerly hidden position, Kakashi watched as Naruto cut the rope holding him up, only to land and trigger a second rope trap. Kakashi smiled.

_There's only one more left._ Kakashi stood up, all business again. _Uchiha Sasuke._

-----

_It's taking him a while._ Sasuke thought as he waited in the small clearing in the forest. _Either Naruto broke out or he went for Hinata. He should know where she was too…_

"Sorry to keep you waiting." Kakashi said behind him, still reading _Icha Icha Paradise_. "I had to take care of our other teammate."

_So it was Hinata after all. _"So you took her down too." Sasuke answered him coolly. "But, I'm not like them."

"Why don't you say that after you get a bell." Kakashi told him, as he casually walked over. "Sasuke-kun." Sasuke turned around and the two of them silently locked eyes.

Then, with sudden violence, Sasuke reached for his weapons flung shuriken and kunai at Kakashi. Kakashi quickly dodged to his right. "There's no point in using regular attacks." Kakashi chided him for his naivety. Sasuke just smirked in return and threw another kunai, but not at Kakashi.

_What?_ Kakashi thought and understood as the kunai severed a once-hidden rope. "A trap?" He skidded from his last jump and immediately jumped again as another dozen projectiles of steel flew at him and embedded themselves on the tree behind him.

As he stopped this time, he heard and felt Sasuke land behind him. _What?! _The genin lashed out with a kick from his left leg that Kakashi blocked with his left hand. His right hand quickly snaked out and grabbed the limb by the ankle. But Sasuke wasn't done yet. Twisting sideways in mid-air, he sent a punch with his right fist at Kakashi's face, who blocked it with his free, left hand. Twisting again until he was upside down, Sasuke lashed out with his other foot, forcing Kakashi to block again, this time with his left elbow over his face.

The bells jingled sweetly, and Sasuke was looking right at them. He smirked again and grabbed at them with his free arm. Kakashi's eyes widened. He quickly let go and disengaged from Sasuke, who landed in frustration. _Almost. _Sasuke eyed the bells. His left hand had touched one of them before Kakashi moved back.

_What a guy. _Kakashi thought in surprise and admiration. Looks like he just stumbled over someone interesting. Then he reproached himself for almost stumbling a moment ago. _The_ Kakashi losing at his own test to a genin? Gai would never let him forget it. _I don't have time to read Icha Icha Paradise. _"Well, I'll admit that you're different from those two."

_Hmph. He said regular attacks wouldn't work. _Sasuke thought as he formed seals. _In that case…_ "Katon: Goukakyou no Jutsu!"

_What? _Kakashi thought in surprise, recognizing the seals. _That jutsu isn't something genin can use. He shouldn't have enough charka. _A blazing fireball shot from his mouth at Kakashi. It exploded where he was and Sasuke kept up the jutsu. Flames shot up toward the sky. Sasuke released the jutsu and saw nothing but a crater in front of him.

_He's gone!_ He thought in alarm, quickly looking around. _Is he behind me? Above? Where is he?_

"Beneath you!" A voice suddenly called out. Sasuke felt something grab his leg. _What?_ "Doton: Shinjuuzanshu no Jutsu!" Sasuke screamed as he was pulled into the ground with enormous force.

"Shinobi Tactic #3, ninjutsu." Kakashi told him while looking down, now right in front of Sasuke, who was stuck in the ground with only his head visible. _How cute._ "Can't move, eh?"

Sasuke ignored him and struggled to move himself. "Looks like your talent is exceptional." Kakashi noted as he stood up and started walking away. "But, they say that the stakes that stick out get driven right back into the ground." _Well, that was interesting. Back to Icha Icha Paradise._

"Damn it." Sasuke said, seeing nothing he could do.

-----

The grass felt very cool, Hinata thought groggily as she awoke. Then, she remembered her circumstances. _Kakashi-sensei!_ With a shock, she got up and scanned the forest with her byakugan. But Kakashi was nowhere to be found. _He's gone. Was it only a dream then? _She wondered. _No, it was real. What happened was that…I…fainted…_ With that realization came shame, shame at herself. _I fainted, and he left me here. In the end, I couldn't decide what to do, so I did nothing._ She wanted to berate herself. She wanted to slap herself, but felt to weak and drained to feel anger, only shame. _Why? Why do I tell myself that I can be like Naruto-kun while I sit here uselessly? Why can't I do anything useful? Why I am so weak?_

Movement in the trees snapped her mind back to reality. It was Kakashi. _Kakashi-sensei is returning?!_ Hinata thought in alarm. _From that direction…Sasuke-san! He even beat Sasuke-san? Naruto-kun is still tied to the tree. So, he'll come for me!_ This can't be happening, Hinata thought. Not again! _I need to hide somewhere else. _Hinata silently rolled out from under the bush and ran, carefully keeping her head down. She stopped behind a large tree trunk and waited. _Oh no! Now he's looking at me again!_ Her byakugan told her that Kakashi was indeed looking at her direction and was now moving towards her. _How? _She wondered desperately. _He couldn't have seen me, not through the trees, and I was so quiet. _Just then, the wind shifted, and Kakashi stopped.

_What is he doing? _Hinata now thought in confusion and curiosity as Kakashi did nothing but move his head around. _Didn't he already know where I am? What's different? _The wind shifted again, this time blowing her hair in her face. As she moved it out of her face, Kakashi resumed walking. _Now he's moving towards me again, but nothing's changed, except…the wind!_ That's it, she thought. Kakashi-sensei must be tracking her by scent. _To track someone by scent from that distance with a mask covering his face, who is he? _Then something else occurred to her. _Wait, or does this mean that I…smell?_

Kakashi kept moving. The change in the wind threw off the scent earlier but it didn't look like Hinata had moved at all. _Maybe she fainted again._ He thought to himself. Finally he stopped in front of a large tree. His nose told him that Hinata was on the other side. "Looks like this is as far as you'll go." He called out, but there was no response. Expecting an unconscious Hinata, he circled around the tree trunk. _What?!_

The water from the river was still icy cold, Hinata thought as the current carried her away. Keeping herself underwater, she figured she could get out of sight before having to breathe again. _And the river should wash away my scent._

"Well, well, well," Kakashi wondered aloud as he lifted up Hinata's jacket. "What have we here?" _Smart. She must have figured out that I can track people by scent and used this as a decoy. Following these tracks on the ground, she's long downstream by now. Also, I've lost her scent. _That was a pretty good escape. It seemed that all his students were interesting in their own way. _But time's almost up, and none of them actually did what they were supposed to do. What a shame. _He slung the jacket over his shoulder and walked back. _Now then, let's check up on Naruto._

-----

Kakashi had long since walked away, leaving Sasuke to contemplate his situation with his body buried under the ground. _Damn it._ He thought furiously as he struggled to break out. _We're this different…_ In the last fight, Kakashi had effortlessly turned the tables on him after he had lost the initiative. The trap, the Goukakyou… It wasn't enough! The sound of something approaching caught his attention. He looked up just as a soaked Hinata came into view.

"S-Sasuke-san," Hinata asked, gawking at Sasuke's head. "Are you all right?"

"I don't want to talk about it." Sasuke replied through gritted teeth. His embarrassment fueled his anger and made him struggle harder. With a scream, he managed to free one of his arms. Sasuke grinned at his tiny triumph and stopped to catch his breath. Freeing his arm gave him the space he needed to squeeze and push his way up. With Hinata's help, he freed himself.

"Did Kakashi-sensei do this to you?" Hinata asked tentatively. Sasuke didn't look like he was in a great mood, brushing dirt off of himself.

Sasuke spat out dirt. "Yes." He admitted unhappily. "There's little time left before noon. I'm going." Sasuke started walking away.

"You're going to try again?" Hinata asked in surprise.

"I touched one of them last time." He told her. "I can do it."

"Wait!" Hinata called out. Sasuke turned around. "I was wondering, could I help?"

Sasuke regarded Hinata for a moment, looking at her as she stood there dripping water, uncertain of herself. "What happened to you, Hinata?"

Hinata quickly told him about how she escaped Kakashi, leaving out the part where she had fainted. "So, he can track people by smell…" Sasuke muttered. She could be useful to him, he thought. The byakugan could find Kakashi faster than he could. "Let's go."

"Eh?" Hinata answered, surprised at the sudden answer. Sasuke was already walking again, not bothering to wait for an answer.

"You said you wanted to help me." Sasuke replied tersely. "Your eyes can find him faster than I could. After you find him… Just hurry up."

"Okay." Hinata replied, hurrying to catch up to Sasuke. _He doesn't look worried at all._ She thought as she looked at Sasuke, whose face showed nothing. "Can I ask you something?"

"What?" Sasuke asked.

"Aren't you afraid that we'll fail?" Hinata asked curiously. "I mean, what if we are sent back to the academy."

"It won't happen." Sasuke answered simply.

"Why are you so sure?" Hinata asked again. She wanted to know why he wasn't intimidated by someone like their teacher.

"Because I won't allow it." Sasuke replied, more to himself than to Hinata. "I am an avenger. I need to be stronger than that man. I will not fail here."

…_and to kill a certain man._ She remembered. An avenger? What was he talking about? Just then, the alarm clock sounded, sending an unmistakable ring through the tranquil forest.

"Damn it." Sasuke said when he heard it. "Looks like we'll get no lunch then."

_It's not lunch I'm worried about._ Hinata thought as she followed Sasuke.

-----

Sasuke and Hinata looked at the two lunchboxes in front of them. After walking back to the training field, Kakashi had them assemble. Now they sat in front of the three logs facing Kakashi. Somehow, Naruto had ended up tied to one of the logs. All of them waited for Kakashi to begin.

"Your stomachs are growling, eh?" Kakashi said to them, clearly noticing their hunger. "By the way, about the results of this training…" That got their attention off the food and to him. "None of you need to return to the academy." All three of them showed varying signs of pleasant surprise.

_I knew I could do it!_

_Oh, that's wonderful._

_Hmph._

"Then, does that mean that the three of us…" Naruto asked happily, momentarily forgetting that he was tied up. _We're ninja!_

"Yes, you three…" Kakashi replied with a happy face. "_**Should quit being ninja!"**_

Hinata recoiled at the sudden viciousness in Kakashi's voice. Naruto stopped cheering. Sasuke glared and wondered what else would go wrong today.

"Quit being ninja?" Naruto asked frantically, not understanding. "What are you talking about?" Beside him, Hinata and Sasuke silently agreed. "We couldn't get a bell, but why are you telling us to quit?"

"It's because you three are just kids who don't deserve to be ninja." Kakashi told him. Sasuke couldn't take it any more and charged forward. It did him no more good than it did for Naruto as Kakashi effortlessly pinned him down on the ground. "See? You're all just kids."

"You think being ninja is easy?" Kakashi lectured them, as Hinata and Naruto listened while Sasuke quietly fumed. "Why do you think we break you up into teams?"

"Why, sensei?" Hinata asked quietly, though she had an inkling but was afraid to blurt it out.

"In other words, you three have no idea what the answer of this test is." Kakashi replied scornfully.

"Answer?" Naruto asked. When was there supposed to be an answer?

"That's right." Kakashi said. "The answer to determine whether you pass or fail." He waited for a response but got none. "Geez, are your brains empty? You don't understand why you're in a team?"

"So what about having three people in a group?" Naruto grumbled, frustrated. _Just tell us already._

"Teamwork." Kakashi replied, putting emphasis on the word.

"You mean working with other?" Hinata asked. _I see, so we were suppose to do that from the start…_

"That's right." Kakashi told her curtly. "But it's too late even if you notice it now. If all three of you had come at me at once, you might have gotten a bell."

"But there are only two bells." Hinata spoke up with a bit more confidence than before. She was sure that she had spotted something wrong. "No matter what, someone will have to go back to the academy."

"Of course. But this test was to see if you could overcome that challenge and put the group ahead of yourselves." Kakashi explained. "But all of you were pathetic." He turned to Naruto. "Naruto! All you did was work by yourself." He then turned to Hinata. "Hinata! You were the only who actually considered working with someone else but it was only because you lacked confidence in your own abilities." Now he looked down at Sasuke. "And you, you thought the two of them would only slow you down in a fight."

All three considered the truth in what Kakashi said. "It's true that ninja need individual skills, but teamwork is more important." Kakashi continued. "A individual who disrupts teamwork brings danger or death for the team as a whole." Kakashi took out a kunai and pressed it against Sasuke's neck. "For example, Hinata! Kill Naruto or I'll kill Sasuke!"

Hinata was too shocked to reply while Naruto panicked and struggled to break out of the ropes. "That's what will happen." Kakashi put away the kunai, knowing that he had made his point. "After someone gets taken hostage, you will be forced to make a difficult decision, and someone will die." Kakashi moved off of Sasuke and started walking. "In every mission, you put your life on the line." He stopped in front of the memorial stone. "Look at this. All the names carved on this stone. All of them are heroes of this village."

"All right!" Naruto shouted happily. "Then I'm going to have name carved in that stone! I'm going to be a hero."

"They're not normal heroes." Kakashi simply said.

"What kind of heroes are they?" Naruto asked, oblivious to the tone in Kakashi's voice. Kakashi didn't answer him and kept staring at the stone. "Come on, tell me."

"They're all KIA." Kakashi finally told him.

"KIA?" Naruto wondered.

"Killed in action." Hinata answered him quietly.

"This is a cenotaph. The names of my friends are carved in this here as well." Kakashi told them somberly and for a moment, no one said anything. Then Kakashi turned and spoke harshly. "I'll give you one more chance. However, the fight for the bells will be much harder after lunch. Eat lunch only if you think you're up to the challenge. But, don't let Naruto eat."

Naruto squawked indignantly. "That's punishment for breaking the rules and trying to eat lunch early." Kakashi told him and continued talking to all of them. "If anyone feed him, that person will fail."

"I'm the rule here, got it?" He added menacingly. He then vanished in a puff of smoke, leaving the three of them alone. Hidden from view, he waited. Now the real test began. He had never expected them to work together in the first place, with their personalities being so different and their lack of affinity. But now, he had told them what they needed to do, and the question was, would they understand?

Sasuke angrily grabbed one of the boxes and tore it open. He ate in fast silent bites that had nothing to do with enjoyment, answering Kakashi's challenge.

Hinata looked at the other one, uncertain of what to do. _It's true._ She thought to herself. _I only wanted someone else's help because I have no confidence in myself. That's not teamwork is. _Her hands slowly reached out and cupped the lunchbox, bringing it to her face. It weighed next to nothing, but she couldn't bring herself to open it. _Sasuke-san wants to try again. Naruto-kun wants to do the same. They both want to, even after seeing Kakashi-sensei's power. What have I done to stand with these two, these two who don't question themselves, who don't doubt themselves… unlike me? _

Her grip on the box loosened. Hinata looked at the two boys, desperately looking for encouragement and strength. But neither of them were paying any attention to her. Sasuke glanced at her once and continued to eat alone, oblivious to everything but a silent vow to redeem himself. Naruto struggled grumpily against his bonds and finally sighed and stayed put. Hinata was alone.

_If I take this, then I must be that person whom I admire in Naruto-kun, that person who father doesn't think I can be any longer, who is a fantasy even to myself. _Hinata thought, nearly crushed by the responsibility that such a small thing in her hands held. _I can't try to be that person any longer. There's no time. _

Sasuke glanced at her a second time. "Are you going to eat or not?" He asked quickly with minimal interest and without compassion. Without waiting for an answer, he continued eating.

_Am I? _She wondered. _There are people whose futures count on me to be that person, not in the future, but now. Am I that person now? I don't know. _Hinata gripped the chopsticks and opened the box. _I don't know, but I am compelled to play that role, The Hyuuga clan, this team… _The sticky white rice went down her throat uncomfortably and uncertainly.

Naruto's stomach growled so loud that it made both Sasuke and Hinata look at him, forgetting their own concerns. "I'm okay even if I don't eat!" Naruto declared, trying to sound tough. His stomach growled again and forced him to drop the act.

Sasuke looked down at his food remaining. Naruto's distraction forced him to think clearly. _Teamwork, eh?_ He held the lunchbox in front of Naruto. "Here."

"But sensei just said…" Hinata warned him, not used to disobeying adults.

"Don't worry, I don't sense him nearby." Sasuke answered her, seemly indifferent to Kakashi's threat. "We're going to get a bell. It's only going to trouble if he's hungry."

Hinata looked down at her own food. He was right, she thought. She also offered her food to Naruto. "Naruto-kun, please eat."

"Hurry," Sasuke told them both. "We don't know when he'll return.

"All right!" Naruto yelled, as Hinata started feeding him. Suddenly a huge gust of wind interrupted them.

"You three!" Kakashi bellowed as he appeared out of the howling whirlwind of dust. "You three broke the rule. Are you prepared to face punishment?" Kakashi formed hand seals and ominous, black clouds formed and covered the sunny sky. Thunder and lightning crashed and clanged. "Any last words?"

Sasuke just glared defiantly, refusing to yield. Naruto sweated all of a sudden. Hinata felt that she had something to say but didn't have the courage.

"But…but…but…" Naruto stuttered at Kakashi. "They were only…I mean…"

"We are a three man team, right." Sasuke said, articulating what Naruto and Hinata both wanted to say since he was the only one not overwhelmed by Kakashi.

"That's right." Hinata declared. Hearing Naruto and Sasuke reminded her that she was not facing Kakashi alone. Their words inspired her and she hoped hers would inspire them in turn. "We three are one!"

"Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!" Naruto yelled out desperately. "That's right, dammit!"

"You three are one, eh?" Kakashi said ominously. "You pass!" He smiled. It looked like the three of them were surprised once more today. "You pass." He repeated happily. "You three are the first. All other teams I tested just did what I told them." The clouds parted leaving the sun shining down upon them.

"'Ninja need to look underneath the underneath'." Kakashi quoted his own words. "Those who break the rules are trash. But those who abandon their friends are worse than trash." _Remember this well._

_Then, we…we passed?! _Hinata thought in amazement.

"The training ends here. Everyone passes!" Kakashi declared in satisfaction. "Team 7 will start missions starting tomorrow." He gave them a big thumbs-up that Gai would have been envious of.

"I did it!" Naruto yelled happily, kicking his legs. "I'm ninja! Ninja! Ninja!"

"Let's go home." Kakashi said, proud of them. _They're a strange bunch, but they're all right._

-----

**To be continued**


	5. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4: The First Challenge**

**-----**

"Oh, my cute Tora-chan!" The fat noblewoman screamed in delight while smothering that damned cat. "I was so worried about you!" _That stupid cat's getting what he deserved. _Naruto thought as he scratched his face. Team 7 stood in the mission report center after retrieving the lost cat for the wife of the daimyo of the Land of Fire.

Now, Kakashi's Team 7's next mission is…" the Hokage muttered looking at the list of missions. "Babysitting Yojyu-sama's boy. Grocery shopping at the neighboring town. Digging up potatoes at…"

"No thank you to all of these!" Naruto interrupted the old man loudly. "I want to do something more interesting! Choose something else!"

_There's some truth in that_, Sasuke thought. Though he hadn't been considering saying it out loud right here.

_Oh no, Iruka-sensei looks so mad_, Hinata thought in concern.

_I knew this was going to happen_, Kakashi thought glumly. This could get ugly.

"Idiot!" Iruka shouted, exasperated at Naruto's disrespect toward the Hokage. "You're still just a rookie! Everybody starts off with easy missions to earn experience."

"But all we get are dumb missions!" Naruto shouted, not hearing Iruka as usual. Before he could get any further along his tirade, Kakashi punched him right on the forehead and sent his face into the plywood floor.

"That's enough." Kakashi said.

"Naruto." The Hokage said at last. "Looks like I have to explain to you what missions are." He had always prided himself for being good with children. At his stern but calming tone, Naruto actually began to listen. "Clients come to the village everyday. They request things from babysitting to assassinations. These requests are ranks of A, B, C, D according to difficulty. Since you just became genin, we assign you D ranked missions..."

The Hokage stopped talking as he noticed that Naruto wasn't listening at all. "I ate tonkatsu ramen yesterday, so today I'm eating miso ramen." Naruto told his team with his back turned to the Hokage.

"Listen!" The Hokage bellowed at him, all his dignity forgotten.

"Sorry..." Kakashi apologized weakly to the old man.

"You always lecture me like that, old man." Naruto complained, totally unfazed by the Hokage's tantrum. "But I'm not just the kid who pulls pranks anymore!" He turned his back again, deliberately this time with a huff.

_I'm going to get scolded later,_ Kakashi thought. _Somehow I have to teach him some tact. Lucky me…_

But the Hokage wasn't mad, but chuckled in understanding. _He could express himself through pranks, but now that he's a ninja, he wants to be taken seriously._ Well then, he did have one mission that didn't look too dangerous for this team, especially with Kakashi as leader. "All right, I understand." He told Naruto. Both Sasuke and Hinata looked at him in surprise. Both had been expecting something far less forgiving, like latrine cleaning.

"If you insist, I'll let you take on a C rank mission." The Hokage continued smugly, anticipating Naruto's reaction. "It's to escort a certain person."

_C ranked? _Hinata thought in concerned.

_That actually worked? _Sasuke thought incredulously.

"Really? Who? Who?" Naruto shouted happiness, just as the Hokage thought he would. "A daimyo? Or a princess?"

"But be so hasty now." The Hokage scolded. "I'll introduce him now." He then turned to the door. "Can you please come in now?" Team 7 collectively focused their attention to the door as someone opened it.

"What the hell? They're all just kids!" An old man bellowed rudely. Without waiting for an answer, he started chugging away from a bottle. It only took a few seconds for everyone to realize that the man was drunk. "Is the shortest one there with the stupid face even a ninja at all?" He asked.

"Who's the shortest one with the stupid face?" Naruto asked. Then he looked up at both Hinata and Sasuke and understood. "I'm going to kill you! I'm going to kill you!"

"Don't kill the man you're suppose to escort, stupid." Kakashi told him while holding him back from charging the drunk.

"I'm Tazuna, an expert bridge builder." The drunk man introduced himself after taking another gulp. "Once I've returned to my country, all of you will protect my life until I've completed building the bridge."

"That's right, Naruto." The Hokage spoke and chuckled, none too kindly. "There's your princess, now get going!"

-----

Team 7 escorted Tazuna through the massive, opened gates of the village. "All right!" Naruto suddenly shouted out enthusiastically, looking back at the village from the outside. "Let's go!"

"Oh?" Kakashi remarked. "Someone's getting excited."

"It's my first time seeing the outside the village." Naruto answered while looking all around him.

Tazuna thought he looked like some kind of monkey. He pointed at Naruto. "Is this kid really fit for this mission?" He skeptically asked Kakashi.

"Hahaha. I, a jounin, will be accompanying you." Kakashi reassured him without worry. There was little chance for harm on a C ranked mission like this after all. "There's little need to worry."

_Is this kid really capable…_ Tazuna's words echoed in Naruto's mind. _I'm really starting to hate this old geezer of a client._ "Hey, you old geezer! Don't underestimate me! I'm a great ninja!" Naruto shouted at Tazuna defensively. "My name's Uzumaki Naruto and I'm going to be the next Hokage!"

"Hokage's the village's strongest ninja, right?" Tazuna asked skeptically. "You don't look like the type to me."

"Shut up! I'm willing to go through any hardships to become Hokage." Naruto whined. "If I become Hokage, you'll have to acknowledge me!"

"No I won't." Tazuna replied smugly, not at all impressed by Naruto's bluster. _What a loud little brat_. "Whether you become Hokage or not."

"I'm going to kill you!" Naruto threatened petulantly, but uselessly since Kakashi was holding him back again. "Let me at least hit him once!" Tazuna walked on, paying no more attention. Sasuke and Hinata watched as Naruto calmed down and grumpily started walking again. They followed, as did Kakashi. Unknown to them all, two figures hidden from above watched with malice.

-----

They had walked along the dirt road for half a day. Naruto soon regained his initial enthusiasm and took the lead. The rest of them followed in silence; Tazuna, Kakashi, and Sasuke because they had nothing to say, and Hinata because she was too timid to pop the question. Finally, she decided that she couldn't keep it to herself any longer.

"Umm, Tazuna-san?" Hinata asked the old man timidly.

"What is it?" Tazuna replied. In his opinion, this girl didn't look like a ninja either, but unlike with the short one, he was more inclined to keep that to himself.

"You're from the Land of Waves, right?" Hinata asked.

"Yeah," Tazuna replied, not understanding what she wanted. "What about it?"

"Kakashi-sensei," Hinata turned to Kakashi. "Are there any ninja in that country?"

"No, there are no ninja in the Land of Waves." Kakashi replied reassuringly, understanding why Hinata sounded concerned. He wasn't surprised. Unlike his two other students, Hinata wasn't the type to go looking for challenges. _When this mission is over, I'll have to do something to make her build more self-confidence. She showed some nerve at the bell test but that isn't enough. _He almost sighed. _All my students are troublesome kids with problems that I'm supposed to solve. It's like being their mother._ For Naruto and Sasuke, that wasn't too far off from the truth. As for Hinata, he had an inkling of why she turned out the way she did. Kakashi continued his explanation."To the countries in this world, a shinobi villages means military power and influence. A small country like the Wave too far to be influenced by the other nations has no need for ninja."

Hinata looked somewhat more relieved. Kakashi decided to use this opportunity to educate them about the world outside the village. "Among the countries that do have ninja villages are the Land of Fire, Water, Lightning, Wind, and Earth. Because of their size and power, these nations are collectively called the Five Great Shinobi Countries. Each one of these five villages are ruled by leader known as the 'Kage'. The five Kage rule over tens of thousands of ninja throughout the world."

_That's got to be a lie, _Naruto thought. No way that old geezer could be that powerful, especially since he already defeated him with the Sexy Jutsu already.

"You just doubted Hokage-sama, didn't you?" Kakashi asked accusingly at Naruto. He turned to Hinata. "No need to worry. There won't be any ninja battles on a C ranked mission like this."

"Really? Thank goodness." Hinata said in relief. Naruto looked disappointed instead. Noticing his reaction, Hinata tried to cheer him up. "But I'm sure we can handle anything. Right, Naruto-kun?"

-----

The five of them walked on through the afternoon in silence. After the initial enthusiasm, even Naruto succumbed to the monotony of walking, putting one foot in front of the other over and over again. In this silence, Hinata questioned herself. _Why did I sound timid asking Kakashi-sensei? Why did I doubt myself? My teammates? My teacher? When I thought Kakashi-sensei was ready to expel us from the academy, it felt like a fire lit inside me and for a second, I was no longer myself. _

Hinata carefully guarded her face so that no one else could see the conflict within her. She did not wish to worry them further, and more importantly, worry about her. _I doubt myself because I am afraid that I can't summon that fire when I need it. I am afraid that I am the thing that holds the team back. _

_I am afraid of their pity. I am afraid of being pitiful._

A noise from behind snapped Hinata out of her reverie. She turned around and was shocked by the sight of two ninja dashing towards them. In perfect synchronization, they quickly wrapped Kakashi up in chains extended from metal, clawed gauntlets worn over their arms.

"What?" Kakashi asked in surprise, as he was wrapped in chains, the links spiked with sharp blades.

"First one down." One of the unknown ninja gloated, his voice muffled by breathing gear worn over his face. The two of them violently yanked on the chain, the blades between the chains cutting like sharp teeth through Kakashi's body.

Kakashi's students and Tazuna watched in horror as the chain ripped Kakashi apart. "K-Kashi-sensei!" Naruto shouted in alarm as chunks of Kakashi hit the dirt road. Then the two ninja moved in a flash and he felt them behind him.

"Second one." The same ninja said. Naruto turned his head and saw the chain high in the air, ready to fall around him. _I have to move! Why can't I move?! _

As Naruto was paralyzed by fear and Hinata was still too shocked to respond, Sasuke took the initiative. He jumped up and threw a shuriken. It went though one of the chain's links and nailed itself into a tree trunk. Still in mid-air, Sasuke next threw a kunai. It impaled itself through the hole in the shuriken and further nailed the chain to the tree. The two ninja were surprised by the rapid counterattack. "It won't come loose." One of them muttered as he tugged at the chain.

Sasuke landed, each foot on one of the metal gauntlets as the two ninja were trapped by their own weapon. "Hmph." Sasuke smirked as he grabbed the arms with both hands and kicked backwards, catching the both of them with a kick in the face.

_Wow._ Naruto gawked at Sasuke with his mouth open, still too shocked to move. In annoyance, the two ninja landed. They hadn't anticipated that a group of kids could respond so fast. As one, they disengaged the chain from their claw arms and freed themselves. One of them lunged at Naruto.

Hinata saw the other ninja as he raced toward Tazuna. Startlingly, she realized that she was the closest one to Tazuna. Tazuna's life was her responsibility. Hinata moved without thinking, moving herself in front of Tazuna. "Stay back, mister!" Hinata shouted. "Byakugan!" Hinata shifted her body into the stance for Jyuuken as her assailant closed in, the metal claw arm lunging forward. In an instant, she found herself looking into the eyes of the person who wanted to kill her.

Then that instant passed and Hinata found her view blocked by Sasuke's back. "Stay back." He told her. Now Sasuke looked at the masked ninja in the eye. He readied himself. But the expected blow never came. The enemy ninja was suddenly pulled back from Sasuke in a chokehold, by none other than Kakashi.

Laying in the dirt, Naruto opened his eyes and stare in amazement at his savior. Kakashi stood before them all, whole and unharmed, while holding both of the enemy ninja in a chokehold in his arms. "Hey", Kakashi greeted casually.

"Kakashi-sensei!" Hinata shouted happily in relief. "You're alive."

_What a showoff. _Sasuke thought.

"Then, that was…" Naruto said to himself as he looked back at the road, finding pieces of logs stretching across the dirt. _Kakashi-sensei used the replacement jutsu._

"Naruto, sorry for not helping out right away." Kakashi apologized. "I got you hurt. I didn't think that you'd be unable to move." Kakashi then walked away, leaving Naruto to contemplate by himself.

_I'm saved._ Tazuna thought in relief. He didn't think that they'd try to assassinate him so soon. Kakashi looked Sasuke and Hinata. "Anyway, good job, Sasuke." Kakashi congratulated. "You too, Hinata." Sasuke's face showed nothing, but inside he was proud of himself. Hinata marveled that Kakashi was praising her. When she had moved, she had none of the control that Sasuke showed. Her body simply moved herself into harm's way when she saw the bridge builder threatened. _Somehow, I did it again. I avoided disgracing myself and everybody's safe. It feels…good. _She sighed in relief.

Naruto stared in silence as he listened to Kakashi's congratulations. He thought back to a moment ago when he had thought Kakashi-sensei was dead and the deadly chain flew down to catch him too. _I…couldn't do anything. But Sasuke could do that in his first real battle…_ He remembered the paralyzing fear as he had stood there while Sasuke had saved his life. And then, as the enemy ninja had closed in, he couldn't even defend himself while Hinata had covered the old man. He might as well had not been on this team at all! Even now, Sasuke had his hands tucked into his pant pockets as usual. _He wasn't afraid at all? _

Sasuke noticed Naruto's attention on himself. _Look at him, all that annoying bluster and boasting about himself and this is the state he ends up in. It serves him right._ "Hey," Sasuke called out mockingly. "Are you hurt, Scaredy Cat?"

Naruto clenched his fists in anger and shame. He was angry at himself for being so useless, at Sasuke for pointing it out, at the ninja for attacking. "Sasuke!" He shouted back. Sasuke was the closest person to take his anger out on.

"Naruto!" Kakashi called out strictly as he saw Naruto about to charge Sasuke. "There's poison in these guy's claws. We need to take it out as fast as possible."

Naruto brought his bleeding hand up in surprise, his anger dispelled for now. The one who had attacked him before Kakashi-sensei rescued him had scratched the back of his left hand.

"We have to open the wound and leech out the poison." Kakashi explained to him. "Don't move too much, or the poison will spread throughout your body." Now, there was one other piece of business. "By the way, Tazuna-san…" Kakashi said.

"W-what is it?" Tazuna replied nervously, startled by the sudden attention.

"I need to talk to you." Kakashi told him.

-----

The two enemy ninja were tied up next to a tree. Team 7 and Tazuna stood around them. "These guys are chuunin-level ninja from the Hidden Mist Village." Kakashi said. "They're known to keep fighting no matter what."

"How did you detect us?" One of them asked.

"It hasn't rained for days and it's sunny today, so a water puddle shouldn't exist." Kakashi explained. Sasuke, Naruto and Hinata realized that they _had_ passed such a puddle before the attack, though none of them had seen anything suspicious at all.

"Why did you let the kids fights if you knew that already?" Tazuna asked Kakashi suspiciously.

"If I wanted to, I could have killed these two in the blink of an eye." Kakashi told him. _And now bridge builder, it's time for you to explain yourself as well. _"I wanted to find out just who these two were targeting."

"What are you talking about?" Tazuna bluffed, giving nothing away.

"In other words, were you the target, or was it someone from this team?" Kakashi explained, deciding to get right to the point. "The mission only called for protection against armed gangs and robbers. We haven't heard anything about you being targeted by ninja. If we knew this, it would be a B ranked mission or higher." Tazuna looked down guiltily. _Just as I thought. _Kakashi continued. "Our mission was to guard you until you finished building the bridge. If there were enemy ninja, this mission would have been an expensive B ranked. It seems you have your reasons, but you lied to us about the details of this mission."

"Then we should go back to the village." Hinata said out of concern for Naruto. "Naruto-kun needs a doctor."

"Hmm." Kakashi considered the options. It was certainly true that the situation was well outside the scope of the mission. And Naruto certainly did need medical treatment. "Well, I guess we'll have to do that."

Naruto clenched his teeth in frustration. It was his fault. They were going back because he had screwed up and looked like an idiot. Well, he just couldn't take it anymore. _I don't want…I can't take this pity! _Naruto pulled out a kunai and stabbed it deep into his left hand. Everybody looked at him in shock.

The pain was incredible, but he didn't cry out. Naruto turned away from them. "Why am so different? Why am I always-Dammit!" Naruto didn't seem to be talking to the rest of them at all.

"N-Naruto-kun, what are you doing?" Hinata asked in alarm and went to check on his self-inflicted wound. Naruto didn't even notice.

"I should be stronger. I've done a lot of missions and I've practiced jutsus everyday." Blood flowed freely from his hand. Naruto watched it and vowed. "I'll never do something that will make me a burden. I'm never going to be frightened and try to run away. I'm not going to lose to Sasuke. I swear this on the pain in my left hand. I'll protect that old man with this kunai." Naruto turned back to look at them all. "The mission's still on."

Hinata beside him listened, and understood. _We're the same. We fear losing the respect of the people around us. Right now, Naruto-kun has been humiliated like I feared I would have. He wants a second chance to prove himself. _He didn't doubt himself at all. That was what she admired about him. He had failed so many times, but he never gave up. _I want to see you fulfill that vow, Naruto-kun._

"Naruto, it's good that you bleed out the poisoned blood," Kakashi told him, interrupting Hinata's thoughts. "But if you lose any more, you're going to die."

Naruto simply stared back in silence. "Seriously, hurry up and stop the bleeding." Kakashi told him. Naruto kept looking at his hand, frozen.

"No, no, no, no, no!" Naruto finally exploded in a panic, flailing his arms around. Hinata tried to calm him down. "I can't die like this!"

"It's all right, Naruto-kun." Hinata said to him in franticly. "Kakashi-sensei, please save him!"

"Show me your hand." Kakashi said simply. He examined the wound and his eyes widened. Right in front of him, the wound was already closing. _It's already starting to heal._

"Um, um…" Naruto asked without his usual boisterous tone. The poor kid was still scared out of his mind. "Am I ok? You have a serious look on your face."

"Yeah. You should be ok." Kakashi started bandaging the hand. Uneasily, he thought to himself. _This must be the Kyuubi's power._

_-----_

"Who do you think I am?" He asked threateningly at the little man before him. If the man didn't learn to shut up, he was going to learn the answer to that question. "I, Momochi Zabuza, was called the Demon of the Hidden Mist Village.

-----

**To be Continued**


	6. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5: The Demon Zabuza**

**-----**

The ferryboat's bow gently cut through the water, its engine turned off. Onboard, Team 7 and Tazuna sat in silence as the boat sailed on through the mist, paddled by the ferryman behind them. None of them could see anything ahead but the all-encompassing mist.

"We should see the bridge soon." The ferryman said with a quiet confidence from experience. "The Land of Waves is at the base of the bridge."

Sitting in the front of the boat, Naruto squinted his eyes even tighter. Soon, the outline of a massive structure at sea was visible to them all. As they approached, the outline of the bridge became clearer. Its massive legs extended high above the water. Cranes hoisted steel beams and tangled webs of scaffolding surrounded the edge of the unfinished bridge.

"Wow!" Naruto squealed in excitement, looking at the impressive piece of engineering. "It's huge!"

"Hey, please be quiet." The ferryman scolded him quickly. "Why do you think we're hiding in the mist and not using the engine? We'll be in trouble if they find us." Naruto quickly shut up and all attention turned toward Tazuna, the most likely reason for any incoming 'trouble'.

"Tazuna-san, I need to ask you something before we reach the shore." Kakashi said politely but firmly. "The identity of the ones after you. If you don't tell us, then this mission ends when this boat reaches land."

The boat was silent as except for the sounds of the sea as it cut through the ocean alongside the massive bridge toward land. Tazuna finally raised his head to regard his attentive audience of disgruntled bodyguards. "Looks like I have no choice but to tell you…No, I want to you to know." He supposed they had the right to know, having already saved his life once. "You're right that this is beyond your mission's scope. A super-dangerous man is after my life."

"Super-dangerous man?" Kakashi asked, intrigued.

"Yes." Tazuna simply said.

"Who is it?" Kakashi asked more forcefully.

"You've probably at least heard his name before." Tazuna told him, never comfortable talking about that man. "The great shipping magistrate, Gatou."

"What? Gatou? Of Gatou Company?" Kakashi exclaimed in surprise. Why would someone so prominent want an old bridge builder dead? "He's supposed to be one of the wealthiest men in the world."

"Who's that?" Naruto asked curiously, in his usual bright voice.

"Yes. Officially, he runs a large shipping company." Tazuna answered Kakashi. "But unofficially, he deals in drugs and smuggling and uses armed gangs and shinobi to take over businesses and countries." He then turned his attention to all of them and started explaining his country's plight. "About a year ago, he set his sights on the Land of Waves. With his money and ruthlessness, he took total control over all our shipping and transportation. For an island nation like mine, by controlling the sea Gatou has a total monopoly on all traffic."

_I see…_ Kakashi was beginning to understand why Tazuna had such a powerful man as an enemy as Tazuna continued speaking. "The only thing that Gatou has to fear now is the completion of this bridge." Tazuna looked up at the massive steel structure.

"And since you're building the bridge, you're in his way and Gatou's trying to kill you to protect his monopoly." Kakashi explained to everyone. "Am I wrong?" Tazuna shook his head.

"Then those ninja from earlier were hired by this Gatou?" Sasuke asked.

"But what I don't understand is that if you knew shinobi were after you," Kakashi asked Tazuna suspiciously. "Why did you hide that from us?"

"The Land of Waves is super poor." Tazuna answered him depressingly. "Even the daimyo has little money. So of course for common people like me, there's no way to afford an expensive B-ranked mission. If you end this mission when we reach the shore, I'll definitely be dead before I reach my home."

Tazuna took a slight pause to let them all chew on that, and then started talking again. "But don't worry about that." He told them flippantly. "If I die, my cute eight-year-old grandson'll just start crying all day long."

_Yeah, real mature. _Kakashi watched in silence as the grown man started imitating his grandson by bawling loudly. "And my daughter will live a long, sad life hating the ninja of Konoha forever!" _Why don't you ease up on the melodrama, grandpa? We get the picture. _The four ninja looked awkwardly at each other, not really knowing how to respond to that. Tazuna closed in for the kill. "It's not like it'll be your fault or anything."

Groaning, the four of them accepted defeat at the hands of the old man. "Well, I guess we have no other choice." Kakashi answered him in perfect team consensus. "We'll keep guarding you."

"I'm very grateful." Tazuna answered back. _Surrender accepted. _Life was good. _I win. _And boat paddled onwards.

"We're approaching the shore." The ferryman spoke up. "Tazuna, it looks like no one's noticed us so far."

"Thanks." Tazuna said. The boat sailed under a tunnel. Dimly lit light bulbs overhead cast a weak light. Naruto craned his neck forward as the light as the end of the tunnel grew ever closer. Finally the boat passed through the tunnel and the bright light of the sun greeted them as well as the cries of seagulls. Naruto exclaimed in delight at the sight of a beautiful sunny day in this unknown land. The boat sailed to the dock at the edge of the shore.

Everyone got off the boat except for the ferryman. "This is it for me." He told them all. "Good luck."

"Thank you." Tazuna answered him.

"Be careful." The ferryman warned and started the engine on the boat and sped away. Tazuna watched him go, his uncompleted bridge in the background.

"All right!" Tazuna ordered loudly. "Let's get me home safely."

"Yes, yes." Kakashi answered him as they resumed walking once more, stretching their muscles after the long boat ride. _The next time they send someone, it won't be more chuunin, but jounin level ninja_. Kakashi sighed. Things sure got complicated.

-----

The five of them walked down the road all afternoon in silence. As usual, Naruto took point. Everyone was on alert, knowing that there would be another attempt on Tazuna's life, but nothing came. For Naruto alertness quickly turned into boredom. Sasuke increased his pace and quickly put himself in front of the pack. Naruto, watching him, felt pissed that Sasuke had one-upped him again. _I'm not letting him take the spotlight. _Naruto quickly sprinted ahead and looked around. "There!" He shouted in a random direction and threw a kunai into some bushes.

Tazuna, Kakashi and Hinata looked at him, startled by his sudden actions. They waited, but nothing came out of the bushes. Sasuke watched without comment. "Oh, it was just a rat." Naruto said nonchalantly.

"N-Naruto-kun…" Hinata stuttered, a bead of sweat on her forehead.

"Naruto!" Kakashi scolded him. "Stop that! Kunai are dangerous!"

"Stop acting like a moron, you idiot!" Tazuna screamed. Who the hell did this little kid think he was? _There are people trying to kill me, you idiot! I don't need a heart attack because of you!_

But Naruto wasn't listening. "Hey, I think I hear something over there!" Naruto started looking around again. "No, over there!" Kakashi was about to scold him again when he heard something move. _What? Did Naruto find something after all? _"Here!" Naruto shouted and threw another kunai, but again there was nothing. Kakashi looked to investigate. But instead of an enemy, all he found was a rabbit scared half to death with Naruto's kunai right above its head.

"A bunny!" Naruto scrambled over and hugged it. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean that." While the rest of them were focusing on Naruto frantically apologizing, Kakashi's mind was elsewhere.

_That's a snowshoe rabbit. But the color…why does it have white fur when in springtime? _Things didn't look right to Kakashi, just like that puddle of water last time.The color of that rabbit's fur meant that it had been raised in captivity. And considering whom they were traveling with…

"Everyone, get down!" Kakashi shouted. Everyone looked up and saw the whirling object coming towards them. Alarmed, they all dropped down to the ground as it came closer, the sound of its whirling growing fainter as it passed over their lowered heads before it ended in a crescendo with a sudden, loud thump.

They got up and looked. The giant sword was lodged horizontally in a tree trunk well above the ground. Balanced on top of the long handle was a tall man with his back turned towards them. He wore nothing but pants and camouflaged armguards, and he glared at them out of the corner of his eye.

Kakashi looked at the forehead protector on the man's head, bearing the sign of Hidden Mist Village. This was the level of opponent that he had anticipated. Naruto looked at the big man glaring hostilely down at them but all he felt was joyous anticipation. _This is it. This is my change to prove myself._ _I'm ready this time. I won't lose to Sasuke! _

"Well, well, well, if it isn't Momochi Zabuza, missing-nin of the Hidden Mist Village." Kakashi greeted their attacker congenially. Naruto looked confused. _Missing-nin? Well, whatever. Right now I'll just kick this guy's ass. Ready…go! _Naruto scrambled forward, but Kakashi stopped him. "You're in the way. Get back!" Kakashi's tone was serious now.

"Why?!" Naruto shouted in frustration. How was he ever going to prove himself if he couldn't fight? It wasn't fair!

"This guy's in a whole other league than the ones last time." Kakashi admonished him. Against him, I'll need this." Kakashi gripped the forehead protector he always worn over his left eye. "It could get a little ugly."

"Sharingan Kakashi…" Zabuza spoke at last in a low ominous voice. Behind Kakashi, Sasuke flinched. "Sorry, but you will hand over the old man now." Zabuza turned his head around just enough to look at them all in the face. Ninata trembled a little at Zabuza's fierce visage. With the hairless brows furrowed in a scowl over cold and slit eyes while bandages obscured half of his face, he looked like a demon.

"You three defend Tazuna-san." Kakashi ordered his students. "Do not enter this fight. That's the plan here." He then pulled up the forehead protector and exposed the covered side of his face. A scar ran straight down over the closed left eye, disappearing into the mask. Kakashi faced Zabuza and opened his left eye. "Fight me."

Naruto looked in confusion at Kakashi's left eye, colored a dark red and having multiple pupils. "Oh? I get to see the legendary Sharingan." Zabuza remarked lightly, and turned his entire body to face Kakashi. "I feel honored."

Naruto looked at both of them for an explanation. "Sharingan! Sharingan! What the hell is it?" Naruto whined.

"Sharingan, a rare power that comes from the eyes." Sasuke explained, as confused as Naruto. _How is this possible? _"This eye technique, or doujutsu, can see through all genjutsu, taijutsu, and ninjutsu. But that's not the only ability the Sharingan has."

"Exactly. That's not all." Zabuza said from above, still only focused on Kakashi. Almost unnoticed by everyone, mist began to surround everything. Kakashi readied himself. "What's even scarier is that the Sharingan can read an opponent's jutsu and copy them. When I was in the Mist's ANBU, my bingo book included information on you. The man who had copied over a thousand jutsu, Copy Ninja Kakashi."

_Our Kakashi-sensei is that incredible?_ Hinata looked at Kakashi in awe. "That's so awesome!" Naruto shouted out, completely forgetting the gravity of their situation. _A thousand jutsu?! All right, when I'm as old as Kakashi-sensei I'll learn two thousand jutsu! _Sasuke looked at Kakashi with suspicion. How was it possible that Kakashi had the Sharingan, and only in one eye? _Could he be…_

"Even talking." Zabuza interrupted everyone's idle musings and brought their minds back to the situation at hand. "I have to kill the old man." That definitely brought the three of them back to reality. They quickly moved to surround Tazuna. Everyone looked up and waited for Zabuza to make the first move, tense and ready. Zabuza just kept talking, ignoring the three of them all together. "But it looks like I'll have to kill you first, Kakashi." Then with his hand firmly holding the handle, he kicked out against the tree, dislodging the huge sword and at the same time propelling himself into the mist.

"Over there!" Naruto warned them. Zabuza was standing on the surface the lake beside them, the sword strapped on his back again. Somehow, the mist around him grew thicker.

"Ninpou: Kirigakure no Jutsu." Zabuza said to them as the mist swallowed him whole leaving nothing to see. Hinata, Naruto, and Sasuke were surprised and rattled. Kakashi calmly walked over to Tazuna and stood behind him, leaving the bridge builder guarded now on four sides.

"Hinata…" Kakashi simply said.

"I-I understand." Hinata stuttered. "Byakugan!"

"Hmph, as if I'd let that happen." Zabuza said in amusement. Everyone looked in shock as Zabuza was suddenly right there in front of Hinata, the sword raised high. With one mighty swing, the sword cut her in two and hit the ground with a heavy thud. Hinata didn't even have the time to shriek.

"T-that's…" Naruto stuttered in terror. "It's just water!"

_Mizu Buushin no Jutsu!? It was a decoy! _Zabuza felt hands from the ground grabbing his ankles. He jumped away just in time. But when he landed, he found a kunai pressed against his throat. "Don't move." Kakashi warned him. A second Kakashi suddenly burst from the ground where Zabuza had stood.

"What?" Naruto said in confusion. He looked around. There were two Kakashi, plus Sasuke and the old man. Where was Hinata? Next to him, Sasuke wondered the same. _So Kakashi disguised a Mizu Buushin as Hinata. And there was a second one under the ground waiting to catch Zabuza. The real Kakashi—no, possibly the real Kakashi is behind Zabuza. I understand that, but where is the real Hinata?_

Then out of the same hole the second Kakashi jumped out of, Hinata slowly crawled up, with dirt on her clothes. "It's all right. I'm fine. Kakashi-sensei grabbed me and took me underground with him." Sasuke and Naruto gave Kakashi the look.

_He reads perverted books. _Sasuke thought.

_He grabs girls and pushes them underground with him._ Naruto thought.

_This guy's a super pervert. _Tazuna thought. The Kakashi currently standing in front of them scratched his head and chuckled, embarrassed under their glares. He shrugged awkwardly. "It couldn't be helped, seriously."

"Heheheh. You're taking me lightly if you think you have the time to joke around." Zabuza spoke up, amused. "You can't beat me with cheap imitations of my own jutsu. But I'll admit you're pretty good. You knew I would go for the girl first and used that as bait for a trap."

"That's right. Like the sharingan, the eyes of Konoha's most powerful clan, the Hyuuga are unmistakable." The Kakashi behind him answered. "When you chose to hide your yourself, I knew that you'd eliminate the one who could potentially see you first to render everyone else blind."

"And so, while your kids were distracted by me, you used Mizu Buushin no Jutsu and copied my Kirigakure no Jutsu, so that there were two of two, one hidden and one in the open. The hidden one then silently grabbed the girl, quickly replaced her with another Mizu Buushin, and hid underground with her using a Doton jutsu. You're quite the magician, Kakashi." Zabuza continued. "But…"

Just then, everyone could hear a familiar sound of whirling metal again. Zabuza used their surprise to suddenly grab the hand of the Kakashi holding the kunai. They grappled while the giant sword-turned-shuriken cut through the both of them and kept moving toward Tazuna. Zabuza and Kakashi both collapsed in a loud splash.

_They were both Mizu Buushin?_ Quickly, Hinata pushed Tazuna down and jumped back herself. Tazuna fell to the ground in a tangle of limbs. _Sorry, Tazuna-san._ The vertically spinning sword hit the ground on its tip, leaving it stuck in the ground upright like a pole. Without a second of delay, Zabuza—the real one—appeared next to it and kicked out at Kakashi. Still surprised, Kakashi couldn't react in time and was sent flying. Zabuza yanked out the sword and followed. _If silent killing didn't work, then I'll cut him pieces instead!_

Kakashi landed in the water with a loud splash. Zabuza closed in. With the mist all around, only at the last second did he see the caltrops planted on the ground. "Caltrops? How ridiculous." Zabuza simply jumped and dove into the water.

"Sensei!" Naruto warned. Dammit! How did things go from good to bad so fast? Hinata wondered the same thing. _Our Kakashi-sensei…was kicked away?_

"He has great taijutsu skills as well." Sasuke commented, as shocked as the rest of them.

Kakashi surfaced, gasping for air. Something was wrong. _This water feels heavy for some reason._ "Fool." Kakashi recoiled at the voice behind him. "Suirou no Jutsu!" Kakashi cursed himself as the water came alive and imprisoned him.

-----

**To be Continued**


	7. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6: The Demon Zabuza, Part II**

**-----**

"You fell for it. This is a prison which you can't escape from." Zabuza taunted the captive Kakashi trapped inside the water prison. Zabuza pushed his right hand into the sphere of water. "You give me a hard time when you're moving. I'll finish you off later, Kakashi. First, I'm going to get rid of them." Zabuza turned his attention to Team 7. "Mizu Buushin no Jutsu."

Out of the mist, another swordsman suddenly appeared in front of them, rising out of the water. "The three of you think you're ninja just because you have forehead protectors. But real ninja are people who have survived death many times." The clone spoke with derision. "In other words, you can call yourself ninja when your name appears in my bingo book." The clone made a hand seal and disappeared into the mist. "The three of you aren't ninja…"

Suddenly, Naruto went flying as Zabuza reappeared. He landed with a thud. "…You're just little kids."

"Naruto-kun!" Hinata shouted. _It's no use. With that speed, even with the Byakugan, how can we hit him?_

"Everyone!" Kakashi shouted. "Take Tazuna-san and run! You can't win against him! He can't move as long as he has me trapped in this prison. He also can't use his Mizu Buushin once you get away from him. Run!"

_Run? You must be joking._ Sasuke thought furiously. Sooner or later, Zabuza would catch them and without Kakashi, they would be annihilated. The only way to survive was to free Kakashi and the only way to do that was to destroy the water clone in front of him. "We have to do it!" Sasuke charged forward. The clone put one hand on the hilt of his massive sword but didn't move. Sasuke threw shuriken, one after another as he closed in. The clone waited for the shuriken to come and then swung his sword like a baseball bat, deflecting them all with a wide swing. Sasuke suddenly jumped high. _He can't bring that sword around in time. This is my only chance! _"This is it!"

"Too easy." The clone reached out with his free hand and grabbed Sasuke's throat as Sasuke dove down. He held the struggling boy like some fish plucked out of a stream before throwing him away. Sasuke landed just like Naruto had. On the ground, Naruto watched in fear.

"Sasuke was…" Naruto looked the clone standing in front of him, feeling true terror. _This is a jounin, a real ninja. I have to run. At this rate, we'll all be killed! _He scrambled to get up. Unexpected pain shot up his left arm, distracting him from his fear. He looked at his bandaged left hand like it was something he had forgotten, something important.

_That's right. I've already seen true terror. And I vowed on it…I vowed that I would never run away. _Naruto looked at Zabuza again and noticed the forehead protector under the clone's feet, remembering that night when protected Iruka-sensei from that Mizuki bastard. _And I _am _a ninja. _Naruto looked at the clone with renewed determination. _This bastard…I'll show him! _Naruto charged forward fearlessly, shouting his battle cry.

"Idiot! Stop!" Kakashi shouted in alarm.

"Idiot." The clone said calmly. He wanted for the screaming kid to come and contemptuously kicked the idiot back to his weak and worthless teammates.

Naruto slowly got up again, feeling triumphant despite everything. The one trophy he wanted he now gripped in his left hand. "Hey, you no-browed freak…" He called out, tying its headband around his forehead. Zabuza looked at him in annoyance. "Put this in your bingo book. The man who will become the Hokage of the Hidden Leaf Village, the Konoha ninja, Uzumaki Naruto!"

Nobody was laughing at Naruto this time. "Sasuke, lend me your ear for a second."

"What is it?" Sasuke asked.

"I have a plan." Naruto replied.

_A plan, from him? It can't be helped. I'll have to trust him._ "I can't believe you want to work as a team with me."

_A plan? In that case, I want to help too._ "Naruto-kun! This plan…" Hinata said without stuttering. "Please tell me what you want me to do!"

"Got it, Hinata. The three of us are freeing Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto declared. "Now, let's get wild!"

The clone just chuckled. "You all seem very full of yourselves, but do you even stand a chance?" _I'll play a while longer. Then I'll end this._

_This is bad…_ "What are the three of you doing? I told you to run!" Kakashi screamed at them. "The battle was already lost when I was captured! Hurry up and run! Our mission is to protect Tazuna-san. Did you forget that?!"

Team 7 felt themselves torn by Kakashi's words. It was true that they had an obligation to their client. Naruto looked pleadingly at Tazuna. "Old man…" He didn't say anymore but Tazuna understood him anyway. _These kids are risking their lives for me, just because they care. Dammit._

"Don't worry. I'm the cause for this mess in the first place. And I'm not going to just worry about saving my own skin." Tazuna replied. "Sorry, everyone. Fight as much as you want." Team 7 brightened at the old man's permission.

"That's settled then." Sasuke told Kakashi.

"Are you ready?" Naruto asked Kakashi.

The clone of Zabuza looked at the three kids as they readied themselves and started to chuckle uncontrollably. "You really don't learn, do you?" He mocked them for their stupid naivety. "Still pretending to be ninja? When I was your age, my hands were already soaked in blood."

"The Demon Zabuza." Kakashi said quietly.

"Oh? Looks like you've heard of me." Zabuza answered from outside the water prison.

Kakashi turned to his students. They had to know just whom they were dealing with in order to know the danger they were in. Zabuza was an inhuman prodigy of murder, and totally beyond anything his students should have to face right now. "A long time ago, the Village of the Hidden Mist was called the Village of the Bloody Mist. There was a final test there for students before becoming a ninja."

"So you know about the final test." Zabuza said.

"Final test?" Naruto asked them, confused about where the conversation was going. Zabuza started chuckling again and it pissed Naruto off. "What's this final test?"

"Students killing students." Zabuza told him and watched smugly as the three kids suddenly squirmed. "Friends who ate from the same pot are separated and forced to fight each other to the death. These are people who helped each other, shared each other's dreams, competed together."

"That's awful." Hinata said to herself, riveted by Zabuza's tale of bloodshed as if it were a frightening horror story.

"Ten years ago, the Hidden Mist Village had to change its graduation exam." Kakashi explained. "Because the year before, a monster appeared." Zabuza chose to remain silent.

"A change?" Hinata asked in morbid curiosity. "What did the monster do?"

"A boy who had not even earned the right to become ninja killed more than one hundred of the candidates that year, and killed them all without hesitation." Kakashi explained to her and then simply looked to his left at Zabuza. Team 7 turned their eyes to the clone in front of them, as if waiting for an acknowledgement.

Finally, Zabuza spoke nostalgically. "That was fun." He turned his hard eyes toward the children in front of him. They shivered from the awful murderous intent in those eyes.

Before anyone could react, Zabuza charged forward and tackled Sasuke, sending him flying. When he landed, Zabuza was already waiting next to him and slammed his elbow straight into his midsection, knocking all the wind out of Sasuke. Zabuza planted his right foot on Sasuke's prone body and twisted it. "Die."

"Damn it!" Naruto screamed. "Kage Buushin no Jutsu!" Clones of Naruto soon surrounded the clone of Zabuza.

"Oh? Kage Buushin no Jutsu?" Zabuza asked conversationally. "Looks like you made quite a few of them."

"Here I come!" The clones shouted as one and pounced on the Zabuza clone, piling on top of Zabuza until there was only a mound of orange visible. For a moment, it held together. Then there was a great roar from within and clones were knocked back with one great swipe of Zabuza's sword. One after another, they fell to the earth and poofed out of existence. The real Naruto fell with them and skidded along the dirt. _There's only one way to win now._ Naruto tossed a black object at Sasuke as he got up. "Sasuke!"

Behind them, Hinata let out a small gasp of surprise. _So that's the plan!_ Sasuke caught the spinning metal object and instantly felt it. _I get it. I know what to do, Naruto._ He unfolded the weapon into its true shape and held it in front of him "Fuuma Shuriken, the shadow windmill."

"A shuriken won't work on me." The Zabuza clone declared. Sasuke didn't bother answering and jumped out. With a scream and all the strength he could put into it, he threw the giant, four-bladed weapon. The clone simply waited patiently for it to come, but was surprised when the disc spun away from him.

"I see." The real Zabuza behind him said calmly. "This time you want to attack the real one." He calculated his timing and neatly plucked the shuriken out of its flight with his free hand. "But it's too easy for me!" Then he caught sight of a second shuriken, also heading right at him. _A second shuriken was hidden in the shadow of the first one? _Team 7 watched anxiously as the second shuriken spun toward Zabuza, who had both his hands occupied.

Zabuza hopped up with both legs and the second shuriken passed harmlessly under his feet. The right hand was carefully kept inside the water prison. "Still too easy." Sasuke smirked, so did Naruto. Behind Zabuza, there was a slight pop as Naruto shed his disguise. The shuriken poofed out of existence, revealing Naruto in mid-flight. Zabuza turned his head around in surprise.

"This is it!" He yelled and threw a kunai as hard as he could at the startled and unprepared Zabuza from behind. Zabuza saw the knife heading at him and did the first thing that came to mind and dodged. He knew the moment that his right hand slipped out of the water prison that the orange kid had fooled him, and that thought infuriated him. The kunai grazed his face just below his right eye and struck the Zabuza clone perfectly. It collapsed noisily into a puddle on the ground.

_Now, it's my turn!_ Hinata threw her own Fuuma Shuriken. Zabuza's attention was fixed on Naruto. The captured shuriken he spun around his hand, letting it gather momentum and power. "You damned punk!" He almost didn't notice Hinata's shuriken until it was too late. "Another one?!" Zabuza quickly changed targets and let the shuriken loose to protect himself. The two shuriken clashed with each other loudly. Before Zabuza could recover any sense of self-control, a massive uppercut hit him in the jaw and sent him flying back. Zabuza angrily twisted in midair and landed on his feet, furiously glaring into Kakashi's sharingan eyes.

Kakashi looked at his right fist in satisfaction. "Now, shall we go for a second round?"

-----

**To be Continued**


	8. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7: The Power of the Sharingan**

-----

The tense standoff between Zabuza and Kakashi continued. "Naruto, that was very impressive." Kakashi said to Naruto, who had surfaced from the water, while his eyes never left Zabuza for a second. "You've all grown."

"I used my Kage Buushin to turn into a Fuuma Shuriken. Then, one of my clones threw me to Sasuke. Sasuke noticed it was me after he caught the shuriken." Naruto explained happily to everyone. "He took out his own shuriken and used the Kage Shuriken no Jutsu. I hid in the shadow of the real shuriken and headed for Zabuza. I knew I couldn't defeat Zabuza on my own, but I thought if I could break the water prison, it could turn things around. We ended up destroying the Mizu Buushin too!"

"That last part was just luck." Sasuke said.

"I take it, Hinata, you saw what they were both trying to do?" Kakashi asked.

"Yes," Hinata replied. "I saw the second shuriken hidden behind the first, so I…"

"You improvised, yes?" Kakashi finished the sentence for her, for Hinata wasn't one to boast about herself. She nodded once. "Good work."

"Well, Zabuza," Kakashi now focused all his attention on the man in front of him. "Looks like you were wrong to underestimate them."

"Those brats of yours caught me off-guard, Kakashi." Zabuza replied with anger and malice. "You're right. I won't waste any time destroying them now."

"Really?" Kakashi replied, continuing their tense conversation. "Then we have something in common. The same jutsu won't work on me twice." If possible, the atmosphere somehow grew even tenser as the two of them finished trading bravado and waited for the other to make the first move. Watching from the shore, Sasuke and Hinata surrounded Tazuna again, ready to defend him.

Zabuza made the first move, jumping backwards. Kakashi copied him. Zabuza landed and formed seals in rapid succession. Again, Kakashi copied his movements perfectly. The water beneath their feet rippled, small waves forming faster and faster.

"Suiton: Suiryuudan no Jutsu!" They both shouted. Out of the water, two huge dragons of water arose and started tearing each other apart. The tranquility of the lake was ruined as a large wave moved outwards from the two fighters. It engulfed Naruto, who struggled to stay afloat. On the shore, Sasuke, Hinata, and Tazuna were swamped by the unexpected rush of displaced water.

_He formed so many seals in just a few seconds, _Sasuke thought. Kakashi really did have the sharingan.

_What is this? Is this really a ninjutsu? _Hinata had never seen such an awesome display of power before. The two dragons finally collapsed, sending tons of water back down to their source. After the explosion of water, everyone could see the two jounin pushing against each other, Zabuza pushing his huge sword and Kakashi fending him off just a kunai.

_Something's wrong. What's going on_? Zabuza was disturbed by Kakashi's display earlier. Sharingan was only supposed to memorize and copy jutsu. So how did Kakashi use the same jutsu he did at the same time? Zabuza broke off from the stalemate. Kakashi mirrored him exactly. As a test, Zabuza ran in a circle. Again, Kakashi mirrored his movements perfectly.

"He's moving just like Zabuza!" Tazuna exclaimed. "And with perfect timing!"

Zabuaza realized the same thing. _This guy. All my movements are perfectly-_

"-Copied by him." Kakashi said to a shocked Zabuza. It was impossible. Yet Kakashi said exactly what he was thinking in his head, with perfect timing. _He's got-_

"-Very unpleasant eyes, right?" Kakashi said, again exactly as Zabuza was thinking.

"What you're doing is just copying. Nothing original." Zabuza said to Kakashi, and to himself.

"You can't beat you, you monkey!" Zabuza and Kakashi shouted at the same time, further shattering Zabuza's confidence. Almost in a panic because of this completely unpredicted situation, he formed seals as fast as his hands could make them, as if desperately hoping that Kakashi couldn't copy them if he was fast enough. Kakashi just silently mirrored his own movements. "I'll see to it that you never open that copycat mouth of yours again!"

Zabuza's concentration was broken by the sight of a sudden apparition behind Kakashi. It slowly coalesced into the shape of a man. With shock, Zabuza recognized it as himself. He hesitated.

"Suiton: Dai bakufu no Jutsu!" Kakashi didn't hesitate and finished Zabuza's jutsu. The water beneath them churned a second time and completely engulfed Zabuza. He tried to swim, to fight against the powerful current sweeping him, but it was futile. Kakashi's jutsu formed a swirling vortex of water that moved through water and land like a drill, tearing through ground and trees like a living river. On the shore, Sasuke, Hinata, and Tazuna withstood another wave of water. Naruto was swept up by the raging torrent and dumped back onshore. They all watched as the water, fueled by an unnatural current from Kakashi, crashed further and further into the trees.

Zabuza was finally free of the river's pull when he slammed into a tree trunk. Kunai streaked through the air and painfully struck his limbs. Above him, perched on a branch was Kakashi.

"It's over." Kakashi stated flatly to him.

"How?" Zabuza asked weakly, unable to understand how things turned out this way. "Can you see the future?"

"Yeah," Kakashi said to him with a fresh kunai in his hand. "Your future is death."

_Not today, _Zabuza thought slyly. _Not to you._ Just then, twin needles struck him in the neck. Even Zabuza was surprised by the timing. Surprised, all of them turned their attention to the figure standing on the branch of another tree. The needles had come from him. Meanwhile, Zabuza collapsed, his body unmoving.

The figure chuckled humorlessly. "That's true." The voice was male, although his face was hidden behind a mask. "He has died." All of them stared warily, unsure of what to make of the young man, except for Naruto. Naruto stared at the stranger with a mixture of barely restrained emotions. Kakashi leapt off the tree and landed beside Zabuza. He checked for a pulse, but found none.

"He truly is dead." Kakashi turned to their stranger. The masked figure bowed to him.

"Thank you." He said to Kakashi. "I've been looking for a chance to kill Zabuza."

"That mask," Kakashi replied. "If I remember correctly, it means you must be a hunter-nin from the Hidden Mist Village."

"You're very well informed." The hunter-nin answered.

Naruto couldn't take it any more. "Hunter-nin?" He shouted hostilely.

Hinata noticed Naruto's obvious hostility but was not sure of why. "Hunter-nin are ninja who hunt missing-nin like Zabuza, who betray their village, Naruto-kun." Hinata explained, hoping that she could at least give him something to think about other than what was troubling him.

"True." The hunter-nin said. "I am part of the Hidden Mist Village's squad that hunt down exiled ninja."

Kakashi calmly analyzed their new arrival. _From his voice and height, he's not much older than Naruto. Yet, he's a hunter-nin. He's no ordinary kid._ Naruto ran until he was standing right beneath the stranger. His face was contorted by frustration and his fists clenched likewise. The stranger stared back. "You the hell are you?!" Naruto screamed at him. The stranger did not answer. "Who are you?!"

"Calm down, Naruto." Kakashi said, trying to defuse a potential problem. "He's not an enemy."

"That's not the point! Zabuza! I mean, _Zabuza_ was killed." Naruto tried to turn all his pent up emotions into words, not caring whether he was sounding clear. "He-he was so strong! But he was killed by some kid no different from me! We look like idiots!"

_There's some truth to that._ Sasuke conceded that Naruto had a point. He was more reserved, but competitive all the same. The idea that some stranger had shown up and finished Zabuza grated at him.

_Naruto-kun…_Hinata wished that she could just go and tell him that he shouldn't be ashamed of himself, that his efforts saved them all from death, that they mattered. But she didn't. Because she knew how hollow they would sound to him right now. _It's a hard thing. To do your best and yet still feel like you failed. _She felt it too, and she had felt it before. But she knew that Naruto was the one who felt it most here. It had been his plan to free Kakashi.

"I can't accept this!" Naruto shouted. Kakashi calmly walked over.

"I can understand why you can't." Kakashi told him. "But it's the truth." He patted Naruto on the head. "In this world, there are kids younger than you, who are stronger than me." Naruto quieted down, still not accepting it.

The hunter-nin disappeared in whirlwind of dancing leaves and reappeared next to Zabuza's body. "Your battle ends here." He told them as he lifted the body onto his small shoulders. "I must go and dispose of this body. It is a body filled with secrets. If you will excuse me." Another whirlwind, and he was gone.

"He's gone…" Naruto said. Kakashi lazily covered his left eye again. Naruto ran to the spot where the hunter-nin had disappeared.

"He's not around here anymore." Kakashi told him, his tone clearly saying to Naruto to drop the matter. But Naruto kneeled down and started punching the ground in anger.

"What the hell was that?!" Naruto shouted to nobody in particular. "What were we doing?!" Kakashi walked over to him while he kept punching and cursing the ground. He grabbed one of Naruto's arms.

"Things like this happen when you're ninja." Kakashi told him. "If you don't like it, make it up next time." He let go of the arm and let Naruto chew on that. "Our mission isn't over yet." He stated loud and clear to his students. "We still need to take Tazuna-san to his house."

"Sorry about all the trouble, everybody!" Tazuna shouted good-naturedly. "We can all go and rest up at my place!"

"All right, people." Kakashi ordered. "Cheer up and let's go!" He turned and started walking. Behind him, everyone started to follow. Kakashi didn't walk more than a few steps before he suddenly collapsed on the ground. Everybody rushed over at the sight of yet another unexpected and unwanted surprise today.

"What happened to Kakashi-sensei?" Hinata asked fearfully.

"Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto asked. The unconscious Kakashi gave no reply. "Kakashi-sensei!"

-----

**To be Continued**


	9. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8: Heroes**

**-----**

Idly, Kakashi looked up at the wooden boards of the ceiling. He felt horrible. He remembered passing out in the middle of the forest, and being briefly lucid as his students dragged him into a house and laid him out on a cot. And now, here he was, on his back, staring at the ceiling like a hospital patient. "I used the sharingan too much."

A woman walked into the room and looked down at him. "Are you all right, sensei?" Tsunami, Tazuna's daughter, asked.

"No, I'll barely be able to move for a week." Kakashi answered truthfully and started to sit up.

"Then you should stay in bed then." Tsunami chided him when he grimaced in pain.

Obediently, he complied and lay back again. He heard the sound of footsteps approaching them. "Sensei's awake!" Naruto exclaimed happily, accompanied by the rest of his team and Tazuna. They sat down beside him.

"Your sharingan is amazing, sensei." Hinata told him. "But dangerous. We were all worried."

"Sorry." Kakashi apologized.

"But, you defeated such a strong ninja." Tazuna said from behind Hinata. "We'll be all right for a while."

"But what about the boy with the mask?" Hinata wondered. "What was he?"

"He wore the mask of a special unit of the Hidden Mist Village ANBU's hunter-nins." Kakashi explained.

"A special squad?" Hinata asked.

"They're called the fire extinguishing unit. Their job is to erase all traces of a ninja from the earth." Kakashi told her. "A ninja's body leaves many secrets, like his ninjutsu, special medicines used on it, or anything else that a village wants hidden. For example, if I die, the secrets of the sharingan could be examined. In a worst-case scenario, the sharingan and my jutsu could be stolen."

As he said those words, Kakashi could feel that something wasn't right. He knew that something troubled him, but it wasn't intuitively coming to him. Making a mental note to think about it later, he continued. "So, hunter-nins kill their village's rogue ninja, and destroy the body to prevent any secrets from being revealed."

"I see." Hinata answered. Kakashi barely nodded. He kept thinking about the thing that was nagging away in his mind. Yes, something definitely wasn't right.

"What's wrong, sensei?" Naruto asked him. Judging from his eye, Kakashi actually looked awake. And the only times Naruto had ever seen that happen was when Kakashi was fighting with Zabuza or reading his perverted book.

Kakashi looked up at him. "About what I just said. Hunter-nin are supposed to eliminate bodies on the spot." Yes, Kakashi could see it now, the thing that had been bothering him. _If I'm right…_

"What about it?" Hinata asked, confused.

"But what did that boy do with Zabuza's body?" Kakashi asked her.

Hinata thought about that for a second before answering. "We don't know. He took it with him."

"Exactly. All he needed to do was bring the head back as proof. It makes no difference if he destroyed the body in front of us or not." Kakashi answered. "Plus, there's the weapon that he used to kill Zabuza."

"It was just a long needle." Sasuke said, and then thought about that. "Don't tell me…!"

"Yep, it's just what you're thinking." Kakashi told him. He could see that the rest of them didn't get it, yet.

"What're you guys talking about?" Tazuna asked.

"Most likely, Zabuza is still alive." Kakashi declared. Everyone in the room except Sasuke looked at him in shock. Naruto and Hinata both started asking questions.

"What do you mean?!" Naruto demanded to know.

"But, sensei! You yourself confirmed that he was dead!" Hinata countered.

"It's true that I confirmed it. But most likely, he was just in a near-death state." Kakashi started to explain the suspicions he had pieced together. "Those needles that guy used have a low fatality rate unless they hit a critical spot and are mostly used in acupuncture. Hunter-nin are well trained in the structure of the human body, so putting someone in a near-death state would be easy for one of them."

He looked at them to see if they were following along before continuing. "First, that boy carried the body with him even though it was obvious that Zabuza was heavier than himself. Second, he used a weapon with a low fatality rate. From those two observations, it's easy to deduce that the boy was helping Zabuza escape, not killing him."

"Maybe you're over-thinking it a little much." Tazuna told him skeptically.

"No, once a ninja feels that something's wrong, he has to prepare for it before it's too late." Kakashi replied. His intuition had been proven right too many times for him to doubt himself on this one. "That's one of the iron rules of being a ninja." Turning his attention back on his students, Kakashi found Sasuke as stoical as usual, while Hinata worried quietly. He was a little surprised by the look at unmistaken anticipation on Naruto's face. But when he thought about it, it wasn't really all that surprising. _He's happy to hear that Zabuza's still out there, because it gives him another chance to prove himself to everyone, including himself._

Beside Naruto, Hinata was not so confident. Zabuza was still alive, and the only one who could fight that demon couldn't even move right now. _For a week, we're defenseless. _"Sensei, what do you plan to do?"

"I'm going to train the three of you." Kakashi answered.

_Train? But we…_ "Please excuse me, sensei," Hinata said to him, caught off-guard by Kakashi's answer. "But what can we learn in one week? Our enemy is someone, that even you, Sharingan Kakashi, had a hard time with."

"And who was it that saved me when I was having a hard time?" Kakashi asked rhetorically.

"But still," Hinata insisted. "If Zabuza's still alive, and you can't fight for a week, what can we do?"

"Don't worry. It's not easy to recover from being put into a near death trance. We'll have a safe window of time." Kakashi reassured them. "The three of you are growing fast. Especially you, Naruto." Naruto looked mildly surprised at the unexpected praise. "You've grown the most."

Naruto immediately brightened up. Hinata watched him with quiet respect. She had known for a long time from watching him that Naruto was under-appreciated by the people around him. Now, he had finally become a ninja like everybody else in class, and had faced death today and walked away. He deserved praise. But she also knew another reason why Kakashi had pointed out his growth, remembering the frustration that Naruto had displayed after the masked boy had left. _Thank you, Kakashi-sensei. For cheering up Naruto-kun's spirits the only way possible, with the praise of someone he looks up to. _Hinata's spirit dampened as she thought of that. _Indeed, the praise of those above us. My…_

"I know that, Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto shouted happily, breaking Hinata's last train of thought. "Now things are going to get interesting!"

"No, they won't." A voice behind them said calmly. They turned to face the stranger, a little boy standing at the door of the room. He was small, younger than the three genin, wearing a hat over his head.

"Who are you?" Naruto asked loudly.

"Inari! Where were you?" Tazuna greeted the young boy with open arms.

The boy quickly took off his sandal and ran to hug Tazuna. "Grandpa, I'm home."

"Inari, say hello to our guests." Tsunami scolded him for his lack of manners. "They're the ninja that escorted your grandpa."

"Oh, it's alright." Tazuna said, affectionately patting his grandson's head. "Right, Inari?" The boy just stared coldly at the guests without any greetings or kind words.

"Mom, they're just going to die." Inari stated matter-of-fact to his mother.

"What did you just say, you little brat!" Naruto jumped off and shook his fist at the little boy, very offended.

"One person can't win against Gatou." Inari replied coolly.

"Listen up, I'm the superhero who one day will become Hokage. I don't care who this Gatou or whatever. I'm not afraid of him!" Naruto ranted loudly in the little brat's face.

"Hero? How ridiculous." Inari sneered. "There's no such thing as a hero!"

"What? You little brat!" Naruto started rushing towards Inari with the intention of pounding some respect into him, but Hinata quickly grabbed one of his legs.

"Please stop, Naruto-kun." She pleaded as she struggled to keep the determined Naruto from slugging Inari right in front of his mother and grandfather.

"If you don't want to die, you should just go home." Inari said harshly to them, then turned his back and walked away.

"Where are you going, Inari?" Tazuna asked.

"To watch the ocean." Inari responded, in a much softer tone. And he left, leaving an awkward silence behind him.

_Little brat…_ Sasuke quickly dismissed the boy's words as insignificant.

_I'm going to pound him! Like that Konohamaru! Teach that kid to talk back to me like that! _Naruto seethed indignantly.

_Naruto-kun, please stop struggling. I can't…hold on…much longer._

-----

"Climb a tree?!" The three of them asked Kakashi incredulously.

"That's right. But it's not ordinary tree climbing." Kakashi said, with a slight hint of amusement at their reaction. After Kakashi had regained enough strength to walk, albeit with crutches, he had Team 7 march out to the middle of the forest outside of town to begin their new training. "You're going to climb without using your hands." They looked at him like he had gone insane.

"I'm sorry, sensei." Hinata replied awkwardly, wondering if Kakashi should really be up and about. "But I don't understand."

"Well, just watch." Kakashi told her. He formed a single hand seal, and hobbled his way over to a tree trunk. Behind him, Kakashi heard surprised gasps and murmurs. Naruto, Sasuke, and Hinata watched as their teacher started magically walking up the tree as if it was flat ground.

"He's climbing it…" Naruto managed to blurt out.

"…Vertically with just his legs." Hinata finished for him. Above them, Kakashi changed direction as he stepped off the trunk and started walking along one of the main branches, meaning he was now from his students' point of view, not only walking vertically up a tree, but upside down. Kakashi stopped walking and faced the three of them. He noticed that none of them doubted his sanity now.

"Here's what you do." Kakashi started instructing them. "Gather chakra at the bottom of your feet and stick it to the tree. Then you can do what I just did."

"And this will make us stronger?" Hinata asked respectfully, but it was hard not to sound a little dubious.

"Exactly. For this exercise, you'll have to mold precisely the right amount of chakra at the right spot. This is hard even for a well-trained ninja. Also, the soles of the feet are the most difficult part of the body to concentrate chakra." Kakashi lectured his students. "If you can master this exercise, then you can learn any kind of jutsu, in theory anyway. It'll also help you develop the stamina to constantly maintain your chakra control. Most of the time, ninja mold chakra during a battle. In that situation, it's even harder to maintain this precision."

Kakashi let them think about that for a minute. While it may not make a big difference against Zabuza, he hoped that the training would at least put them on a level to take on that masked boy. "Well, none of this is going to happen just from listening to me." Kakashi remarked. "Let's get started."

Kakashi took out three kunai and threw them. Each of them landed on the ground in front of them. "Each time you climb up, use that kunai to mark the farthest you can go at your current level. Keep trying to go above that mark." He started instructing them. "You're not good enough at this to do this by walking. So run toward the tree to give yourselves a boost. Got it?"

Naruto was the first to keep up his kunai. "This training's a piece of cake for me!" He boasted cockily. "Especially since _I'm _the one growing the fastest!"

"Yeah, now be quiet and start climbing." Kakashi casually brushed him off. _Don't let it go to your head, Naruto._

Naruto clearly didn't like that and grumbled, but he obeyed and molded chakra under his feet. "All right! Let's go!" He sprinted toward the first big tree he saw and planted his left foot solidly on the trunk. Naruto didn't even get two steps before he fell and crashed back to land. He moaned and clutched his head.

To Naruto's left, Sasuke ran toward a tree, and ran up it without a pause in between. Sometime between his ninth or tenth step, the connection between his feet and the tree suddenly popped like a soap bubble that had outlived its time. He managed to avoid falling and pushed off against the tree, returning to the ground on his feet instead with a graceful back flip. He looked with frustration at the hole in the trunk below the spot he had marked with the kunai. _I didn't know maintaining a constant level of chakra was this hard. If I put too much, I get repelled from the tree, like that. _He turned to Naruto, who was still nursing his sore head. _But if I don't put enough, it won't create a connection and I'll end up like him._

"Um, Kakashi-sensei? I'm done." Hinata spoke up timidly. Sasuke and Naruto turned toward her voice, but were surprised that they had look up so high into the air. Hinata stood on the branch of a tree, one that they realized she had unmistakably climbed on her first try.

"Oh? Looks like the one best at controlling her chakra is Hinata." Kakashi remarked lightly, knowing that it would infuriate his two other students. _It's not unexpected, since she is the heiress of the Hyuuga clan, and should have already received training on chakra control. _He decided to tease the boys a bit more. "Maybe Hinata, and not a certain somebody, is the closest one to becoming Hokage. And maybe, the Uchiha clan isn't as great as I thought."

"S-sensei…" The looks that her teammates were sending up to her right now weren't making Hinata feel very flattered. She smiled apologetically down at the two of them still on the ground.

_But those two, Naruto and Sasuke, have an incredible amount of chakra within them that Hinata can't match. If they can master this chakra from this training, they'll gain a valuable asset._ They were off to a rocky start, Kakashi decided. But nobody said anything about it being easy.

-----

Everywhere she looked, she saw misery. Defeated men sat by the road wearing signs feebly scribbled with their desperation for a job, any job. Children sat right alongside with them, with no adults even glancing their way. Everywhere Hinata looked, there was only the depressing story of human suffering. It wasn't until she had walked down these streets, truly looked at this town for what it was, that she understood the plight of this country. Now, as she escorted Tazuna back to his home after a day's work on the bridge, she couldn't help but feel sorry for them.

Suddenly, the bridge felt like more than a construct metal. She started seeing it the way that Tazuna must have seen it everyday. To her eyes, the men who worked on it seemed to not only pound hammers and nails, but their frantic wish to escape the hopelessness of their lives. Their sweat under the hot sun fell on its surface, like offerings to the god of rain in a terrible drought. And the man pounding the hardest was the one in front of her.

As she escaped the burning afternoon sun and stepped into the house, Hinata wondered if it was all right for a bodyguard like her to become so attached to her client. Tazuna was greeted by his daughter while she checked on Kakashi-sensei. Savory smells started coming out of the kitchen. Just after the sun set, Naruto and Sasuke return. They looked dirty and didn't talk much. She decided it wasn't a good idea to ask how their training went. Dinner didn't go any better. The two of them tried to out-eat the other, lost their stomachs, and then just started glaring at each other. It was during dinner when she noticed something.

"Excuse me, but why do you hang this torn picture?" She asked Tazuna's family after eating while everyone was drinking tea. She looked at the family portrait, showing Tazuna and his family during happier times. But a section of the picture was missing, leaving only a man's arm and not the man himself. She had a feeling that this was important somehow. "Inari-kun was looking at it the whole time during dinner. It looks like someone torn out the part with that person on the right."

All three of her hosts looked uncomfortable. She suddenly felt that she had dug into something private that she had no business trespassing on.

"He was my husband." Tsunami said, as she washed dishes with her back facing them.

"He was the man who was the hero of this town." Tazuna said quietly. Inari got up and started walking away.

"Inari, where are you going?" Tsunami asked, concerned for her son. Inari didn't answer, and just quietly bolted from the room. She chased after him. "I told you not to talk about him in front of Inari, father!"

The two of them left, leaving the room with an awkward silence. Hinata somehow found her voice. "I'm sorry." She apologized. "It's not my place to-."

"No!" Tazuna pounded his fist against the tabletop. His voice was ragged and full of emotion. "It's a story that should be told more often in this town!"

He breathed in and out, steadying himself for the pain from bad memories. "That man was father to Inari even though those two weren't related. You wouldn't know it by looking at him today, but Inari used to laugh a lot back then. But…Inari changed, after what happened to his father." As he remembered, tears streamed down his face. "After that day, the idea of courage was killed in Inari's heart, and the hearts of everybody on this island."

"That day?" Kakashi inquired. The four of them listened curiously as Tazuna told his tale. "What happened to Inari-kun?"

"To explain what happened on that day, you first need to understand the man who was a hero on this island." Tazuna explained as he wiped his eyes.

"A hero?" Naruto asked.

"It was about three years ago when Inari first met him." Tazuna told them and began telling them the story of how the man had saved Inari from drowning. "His name was Kaiza. He was a fisherman who came here to seek his dream. Inari, who lost his father before he could remember anything, grew very attached to Kaiza since first meeting him. And so they became like father and son. It didn't take long for Kaiza to become part of our family. He was just the kind of person that this town needed.

"After he saved the town from an over-flooded dam, people started calling him a hero. He became the father that Inari could be proud of. But around that time Gatou turned his attention toward us. When he dared to take on Gatou, his thugs beat and tortured him. The next day, Gatou had Kaiza executed in front of everybody, in front of my grandson." Tazuna finished the tale of Kaiza. "After that, Inari changed. Everybody changed. Nobody was willing to fight. We became a beaten people, too afraid to fight back because we didn't want to risk losing what little we had left.

"Yes, it's a story that should be told more often. To remind ourselves of…_of what we used to be_!"

Tazuna's hands trembled with pent-up frustration. Naruto looked at the torn picture, the ripped out gap symbolizing more than it looked like, understanding what he had to do. With determination, he got up from his chair and headed for the door. Strain from training all day caught up with him and Naruto stumbled on his first step, falling to the floor.

"If you're going to train, don't." Kakashi warned him. "You've molded too much chakra today. If you move anymore, you'll die."

But Naruto wasn't listening. He struggled with the ground, with his aching body. "I'll show him. I'll show him that there are still heroes in this world!"

-----

**To be Continued**


	10. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9: The Return of the Demon**

-----

After Naruto struggled and stumbled his way outside, Sasuke had excused himself while Tazuna had went to see if Inari was all right. Outside on the porch, Hinata contemplated all that had happened this day. That boy, Inari, was in a way a small example of what was wrong with the entire community. She wondered just what would happen if the bridge was built. Couldn't it simply be destroyed later? Wouldn't everyone's efforts be in vain? Her thoughts were interrupted when she heard the door pulled open behind her.

"Kakashi-sensei." Hinata said after she turned her head around.

"It's a nice night out today, isn't it?" Kakashi asked pleasantly as he sat next to her. "So I decided to enjoy it after lying down in bed all day long, if my student will let me share it."

"It certainly is." Hinata responded awkwardly. "Please, sit." An uncomfortable silence began as Kakashi waited for her to say more, but Hinata declined.

"Don't fret. Naruto can take care of himself." Kakashi said to her, deciding to take the initiative.

"I know that, sensei. I believe in Naruto-kun." Hinata answered back. To Kakashi, she sounded like she meant it, and yet she still appeared troubled. "It's just that, well, I can't help but feel bad for this town. Even though our mission is only to protect Tazuna-san until the bridge is finish, I…"

"You want to protect this town? This family? That boy?" Kakashi supplied the words that she did not mutter. "You are troubled because their pain touches you, correct?"

Hinata nodded. "You're right, Kakashi-sensei. I can't help it. But isn't this a bad thing for a ninja? To grow so attached?"

"You think that your empathy will make you weak?" Kakashi prodded. Hinata gave him another small nod, as if just admitting the fact was a failure. "Well, I can't say that you're wrong. Ninja are tools for conflict and war. So in your future, you will see death. You will kill people. So it may cause you much pain in the future."

Hinata didn't say anything, but he could tell that she was devastated. Kakashi put a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "But, you know, empathy is very human. And ninja are still human, even though at times it seems easier if we weren't. How should I say this, at some point in your life, you'll have to decide if you want to continue to be a ninja or not. You will do something that you will not like, and then you will have to decide whether this is the life you want to lead. It may very well happen in the next few days." Hinata looked him as if she had never thought of that before.

"Yes, there's more to life than being a ninja, Hinata." Kakashi told her, smiling. "Ultimately, life is about seeking happiness. And what happiness means is something that you should decide, not your family nor outsiders. So don't look at your empathy as something that you have to kill. In fact, it could become very useful right now."

"What? Sorry sensei, but what did you say?" Hinata didn't like sound as if she wasn't paying attention, but Kakashi had given her too much to think about for her to could pay him any attention. _To not be a ninja! Unthinkable!_ It went against everything that she had ever been taught. To be a ninja was the highest honor in the village, and yet here was her sensei was telling her that there was no shame in failure. _No shame? What about my family? What about Naruto-kun?_ And yet at the same time, it had an appeal. All her life, she had been told to be a ninja for the sake of the clan or the village. But if she could be anything…

"I was saying how you could be a big help to our team right now." Kakashi's voice showed no irritation at Hinata's distractedness. "As you've noticed, Naruto and Sasuke don't like each other. Naruto thinks of Sasuke as someone he has to beat, and Sasuke thinks of Naruto as deadweight. But you, neither of them have any problems with you. So, that puts you in a unique position. In short, I want you to be a mediator for the two of them."

"Mediator? You want me make peace between them?" Hinata asked him, coming out of her reverie.

"That's correct." Kakashi said. "As you saw during dinner tonight, the two of them push each other on. That can be useful for growth, but it doesn't do any good for teamwork in the long run. Now, I can't be around everywhere with you three, so I'm trusting you with the responsibility of keeping those two in line."

"Me?" Hinata asked again, caught by surprised by Kakashi's request. She realized that he was right, that she was in the position to mediate between her two teammates, but she had never thought that Kakashi would ever hand her such a responsibility. Even though she had not asked for it, she resolved to make the best of it. "I see. I'll do it. I promise I won't let you down, sensei."

"Good, I know that you're not the type of person who feels confident speaking to others. But I'm confident that you can do this, Hinata." Kakashi smiled behind his mask. "If I'm this team's leader, then I say that I want you to become this team's heart, Hinata. I know I can trust you to do this."

"Yes, sensei!" Hinata brightened from Kakashi's warm praise and felt herself confident to face Kakashi's expectations. That surprised her. It wasn't like the sort of expectations that his father had handed her. Kakashi had said it in a way that expected her to fulfill them and yet was gentle and caring at the same time. That feeling stayed with her as she went to sleep and dreamt in peace.

-----

By the sixth day of their stay at Tazuna's home, things were mostly routine for everybody. After breakfast, the boys would continue the tree climbing exercise. Tazuna would go to work, escorted by Hinata. Kakashi would stay in the house and rest. Each day, Kakashi could feel himself growing stronger and strong and his old strength returning. Tazuna and Hinata ate their packed lunches while the boys headed home and took a lunch break. Everyone would meet again at dinner and afterwards, Naruto would wander off into the woods to train by himself through the night, not returning until dawn. But today, when Naruto failed to show up at breakfast. Hinata was worried.

"Well, it looks like we'll have to start without him." Tazuna said. All of them were gathered around the dining table while Tsunami placed the dishes down. It was well past dawn and still no Naruto.

"Is it really fine for a child to stay outside all night by himself?" Tsunami asked with concern.

"Don't worry about it." Kakashi reassured them. "He's a decent ninja, even though he doesn't look like it."

"I wouldn't say that. Maybe he's really dead from exhaustion." Sasuke interrupted. Then he simply got up and started walking.

"Wait, Sasuke-san. Where are you going?" Hinata asked.

"I'm going for a walk." He simply replied.

"But we're going to eat…" Hinata started to say, but shut up when she saw Sasuke's empty plate. _That was fast…_ The door slammed behind him. She also wanted to go outside, so she could see if Naruto was all right, but she had to escort Tazuna. Still, she had to give it a try. "Kakashi-sensei, could I also go for a walk?"

Kakashi looked at her knowingly. Behind her, Tazuna gave him a small nod. He shrugged. "Well, why not. But come back before it's time for Tazuna-san to go to work. If you stay too long and miss breakfast, it's your fault."

"Thank you, sensei." She thanked him and bolted for the door. Sasuke turned around once as she ran outside and kept walking. She quickly caught up with him.

"What do you want?" Sasuke asked bluntly. From someone else, the question would have been insulting, but Hinata had been around Sasuke enough to know that he just didn't care about courtesy much.

"I wanted to come with you and see if Naruto-kun is all right." Hinata answered truthfully.

"Naruto? What makes you think I care about Naruto?" Sasuke asked dubiously. "I told you, I'm taking a walk."

"Yes, you did. But you didn't have to finish breakfast so fast just to take a walk." Hinata pointed out. If she could just get him to admit it to her, it could a first step to building a bridge of respect between her two teammates. "Even if you don't like Naruto-kun, he's still your teammate, right?"

"Yes, we're on the same team, and there's nothing I can do about that." He conceded that much, annoyed at her prodding. "But it would be a pity to lose him, just after he proved himself to useful against Zabuza and wasn't just a loudmouth idiot with no talent."

"Then, you do care what happens to Naruto-kun." Hinata said. Sasuke simply glared at her as a silent warning that his tolerance was nearing an end. "There's nothing wrong with that. As teammates, the three of us should learn to care about one another and maybe even learn to understand each other and become friends."

"Oh?" Sasuke responded. _What's with her today? Why is she suddenly so nosy_? "And what do _you_ think about Naruto?"

"Me?" Hinata asked, caught off-guard by his question. And it wasn't a question that she was comfortable with answering. "Well, he-he's my teammate, of course. And, well, I guess, I can't say much more than that." She nearly blushed out of embarrassment. Sasuke raised his eyebrow at her awkward and flustered answer.

"Well, perhaps you'll feel more comfortable answering that question from Naruto himself than from me." Sasuke was content to leave it there and let their conversation die.

"No, it's like that. I mean, we…" Hinata tried to protest, but couldn't think of anything to defend herself with. The only good thing that she had to say was the truth, and she wasn't sure if she wanted to share something like that. _But didn't Kakashi-sensei trust me to build our teamwork? How can I do that when I don't trust a teammate enough to answer a question?_ "Have you ever someone as an inspiration? Someone who you wanted to follow as an example?"

Now it was Sasuke's turn to freeze. His eyes narrowed as his mood darkened. "Yes, I did." He told her without a trace of emotion in his voice.

"Well, I guess you could say that Naruto-kun is an inspiration to me." Hinata admitted truthfully. "The way he never gives up no matter what, the way that he fails but can accept it, that's what I want to be. I really have no idea how he thinks of me."

Sasuke didn't say anything back. He looked lost in thought. "I don't feel like talking anymore." He finally said.

_Did I say something wrong?_ That wasn't the reaction she had hoped for. She thought that she would have encouraged him to say something, but instead Sasuke closed up completely. Their conversation at an end, Hinata had no choice but to follow Sasuke in silence. Soon, they left the town behind them and walked beyond the edge that separated the town from the wilderness. As they passed through the forest, they saw a young girl carrying a basket walking towards them.

"Excuse me, but did you see a boy in orange?" Hinata called out to her as they neared each other. The girl stopped in surprise.

"Who are you people?" She asked cautiously.

"We're ninja looking for our teammate." Hinata responded. "Please, we're very worried about him."

"It's all right." She responded kindly. "The boy you're looking for is not far away. I just passed him. He's all right."

"Really? Thank you." Hinata thanked her, relieved that Naruto wasn't dead or injured.

"It's nothing. I'm glad to help you. It's good that you care about your comrades. In this world, sometimes those people are the only ones who you have to care about. Nobody else matters." The girl looked down, deep in thought with a sad smile. Then she brightened and walked away. "Goodbye. Let us meet again someday."

_I didn't even get a chance to ask for her name._ Hinata berated herself for that lack of courtesy but kept walking forward in the direction that the unknown girl had came from. Sure enough, the two of them found Naruto sitting in a clearing in the woods.

"Oy! Hinata! Sasuke!" Naruto shouted at them when he saw them.

"Naruto-kun! Are you all right?" Hinata shouted back. "A girl told us that you were here."

"What? You think there's anything here that could kill me?" Naruto boasted. "You know me better than that! All right! It's time to get back to training!"

Before Naruto could get up and start running up trees, Sasuke calmly smacked him across the head. "Idiot, did you forget that when breakfast time was?"

"Hey, hey! I was just sleeping after training all night." Naruto defended himself indignantly. "Unlike a certain someone."

"What did you just say?" Sasuke said threateningly. "Are you trying to pick a fight?"

"Bring it on!" Naruto shouted back.

"Now wait just a minute." Hinata protested. "Teammates shouldn't fight each other. We're comrades." The two of them just looked at her, like they just saw her for the first time. She shrank a little from their gaze. "Please?"

"Anyway, it's time to start training." Sasuke said.

"I definitely won't lose to you!" Naruto shouted as a challenge. Sasuke just grunted once. Watching them, Hinata felt pleased. _Looks like it worked. _

"I have to go now. Good luck, you two!" Hinata said her goodbyes and headed back. "Maybe I'll meet that girl on the way back and ask her name?"

"Girl?" Naruto said. "That girl's really a boy."

Hinata nearly tripped herself. _What?!_

_-----_

After leaving the two of them alone, Hinata guarded Tazuna through the workday and returned home as usual. The sun set, but neither of the two boys came back for dinner. It wasn't until the sky was black with stars that Sasuke came through the door, carrying Naruto with him. Both of looked dirty and tired, but they both had the unmistakable grin of winners. Kakashi congratulated the both of them for finishing the exercise at last.

As they sat down to eat, all the misdirected rage that boiled inside of Inari exploded, and he lashed out Naruto and the others for their wasted efforts. Naruto shouted right back at him, and left the table in disgust. Later Kakashi went and consoled the crying boy, and eventually everyone went to bed. Nobody fell asleep in a good mood that night.

The next morning, Hinata awoke and ate breakfast with the others, except Naruto, who was still asleep. Kakashi decided to allow Naruto to rest for all his hard work. Today would be the first day that she would have Sasuke and Kakashi at her side since Kakashi started them on the training exercise. With the two of them beside her, Hinata felt much more confident of their chances of protecting Tazuna from harm. They passed through the town with no trouble, but when they reached the construction site, a scene of chaos greeted them.

"What happened here?" Tazuna managed to blurt out. On the bridge, all his fellow workers lay unconscious or moaning in pain. Someone had come and beaten them all. The three ninja were on alert, looking for a threat.

_Don't tell me it's him again…_ Kakashi feared the worst. And sure enough, a thick cloud of mist suddenly came out of nowhere and blanketed the entire bridge, making it impossible to see far ahead. _This mist…_ "Sasuke, Hinata, he's coming!" The three of them formed up around Tazuna, waiting for the enemy to emerge. _My predictions were right. Zabuza's alive._

"This is the same jutsu as before, right? Kakashi-sensei?" Hinata asked just to be sure.

_Zabuza is alive and he's here._ Sasuke shook with anticipation.

"Sorry to keep you waiting, Kakashi." A voice called out from somewhere in the thick, white soup all around them. "Looks like you're still carrying those brats with you."

"Hinata, where is he?" Kakashi asked urgently.

"I understand!" Hinata answered sharply and the veins around her eyes bulged as she saw through the mist. But they soon found that her byakugan was unnecessary as several identical copies of Zabuza surrounded them.

"Look at that one, trembling from fear." one of them taunted, looking at Sasuke. "How pitiful."

Sasuke just grinned at him nastily. "I'm trembling from excitement." He corrected the clone.

"Sasuke, go for it." Kakashi told him, but Sasuke needed no encouragement as the clone who taunted him charged forward quickly with a roar. But from the training, Sasuke had learned how to use chakra from his feet to make himself faster and rushed forward to meet the copy of Zabuza. Seconds later, he touched down on exactly the spot where he had jumped from. All the Zabuza clones erupted, leaving a circle of water around them.

"Oh? He can defeat the Mizu Buushin now." The real Zabuza stepped into view, and as Kakshi suspected, the masked boy was by his side. "That brat's gotten stronger. Looks like you have a rival, Haku."

"Seem like it," the boy, Haku casually replied.

"Well, it looks like my predictions were right on the money," Kakashi commented, equally casually. "About that masked boy."

"So being a Mist hunter-nin was a big lie?" Tazuna asked.

"He's obviously with Zabuza, standing next to him and all." Kakashi responded.

"I'll fight him." Sasuke stated, leaving no room in his voice for debate. "To trick us with an act, I hate people like that the most."

"An impressive young man." Haku said to Zabuza as he sized Sasuke up. "Even though Mizu Buushin only have one-tenth the power of the original, he destroyed them all."

"But we've gained the first advantage. Go." Zabuza ordered him.

"Right." Haku obeyed and charged forward, spinning around so fast that he looked like a whirlwind. Sasuke was momentarily surprised by the unexpected charge. Smiling grimly with a kunai in both hands, he braced himself for the strike to come. Haku closed in on him, his body like an unreadable blur. But Sasuke stood his ground, watching with concentration, eyes intently searching for any clue as to where the strike would come from. Finally, they were close enough and there was a clang as steel hit steel. Haku's right hand held firmly a long needle, parried by the kunai in Sasuke's left hand.

Both of them broke the deadlock and clashed again, twice. But the result was the same as before. "I don't want to kill you." Haku told Sasuke as the two of them tried to push each other's weapon away into the other's face. "But you won't just give up, will you?"

"Don't be stupid." Sasuke retorted.

"I didn't think so." Haku responded. "But you won't be able to keep up with my speed next time. Plus, I've already gained two advantages."

"Two advantages?" Sasuke asked, not understanding. As far as he could tell, both of them were in a deadlock.

"The first is the water on the ground. And the second is that only one of hands is free." Haku calmly explained to him. "From now on, all you can do is run from my attacks." Then the masked boy started doing something incredible as he formed jutsu hand seals with only his left hand.

_One-handed? I've never seen that before._ Kakashi watched in surprise. Haku finished the seals and stamped the ground. The water around him levitated off the ground and began taking form. "Hijutsu: Sensatsu Suishou."

Circling above Sasuke, the water shaped itself into a ring of slender needles, all pointed down at him. Sasuke was surprised as any of them, but he didn't panic. _Remember the training,_ he told himself. _Concentrate my chakra to my legs!_

On cue, all the needles crashed down as if thrown by an invisible hand. Haku leapt back just in time and saw as the needles hit the ground with explosive force before dissolving back into formless water. He saw the geyser of water engulf the other boy, but saw nothing when the water settled down. _He's gone!_

There was motion from above, high above him and Haku, taken by surprise, barely avoided the shuriken thrown at him. Two more followed in quick secession, forcing him to leap back. He landed and looked up again, but Sasuke was gone.

"You're pretty slow." A voice taunted from behind him. "From now on, all you can do is run from _my_ attacks."

-----

**To be Continued**


	11. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10: Battlefield of Dreams**

**-----**

Haku quickly turned around and again the two of them clashed their weapons together. But Haku was only holding one weapon while Sasuke had two. As he blocked a blow from Sasuke aimed at his throat, he saw Sasuke's other hand throw its kunai at his face. Haku had only enough time to dodge, and that gave Sasuke what he had been looking for. With a yell, Sasuke landed a solid kick on Haku's masked face, sending him crashing backwards at Zabuza's feet. _Haku lost in speed?!_

"Looks like I have the advantage in speed." Sasuke called out to his opponent.

"That's what you get for calling my team brats and underestimating them again." Kakashi said to Zabuza. "Sasuke is Konoha's number one rookie. Hinata will one day inherit the Hyuuga Clan. And Naruto is the number one hyperactive ninja of our village."

Zabuza just looked at them and chuckled to himself. "Haku, do you understand?" He said to Haku as he stood up. "At this rate, we'll lose." _Get serious and kill them._

"Yes." That was the only acknowledgement Haku gave. Unpleasant chakra leaked from him like smoke from a fire. He looked at Sasuke. "Sorry." Surrounding Sasuke and Haku, a ring of ice formed. It grew and shaped itself into great rectangular sheets of ice.

"Hijutsu: Makyou Hyoushou!" The sheets of ice formed a circular dome over the two boys, separating the two boys.

_What is that jutsu? _Even Kakashi, owner of a thousand jutsu, had never seen anything like this. Everyone watched in shocked disbelief as the boy actually stepped into one of the mirrors. Sasuke found himself surrounded by reflections from every one of the mirrors staring back at him, all faceless.

"Damn it." Kakashi cursed at their unpredicted predicament, and ran to back Sasuke up. But before he could sprint half the distance, Zabuza suddenly blocked his way, covering the distance between them in an instant.

"Your opponent is me." Zabuza told him. "Against that jutsu, that's boy's finished."

"Now, can we begin?" Haku's voice echoed with the cage of mirrors at Sasuke. "I'll show you my real speed." Suddenly, a needle hit Sasuke's arm. Before he could grimace, another hit him from behind. And another hit him from the left, the right. Needles hit him from every angle almost simultaneously.

"Sasuke!" Kakashi shouted helplessly as Sasuke's scream of pain echoed. He could do nothing with Zabuza in his way.

"If you try to get by me," Zabuza taunted him. "I'll kill those two." Standing by Tazuna, Hinata realized that the she was the only one in a position to do anything.

"I'm sorry, Tazuna-san." Hinata apologized quickly. "But I have to leave your side for a moment." Tazuna looked at her and nodded, giving her his consent. Hinata charged forward. Just then, she saw someone enter her range of vision. She knew what to do. Leaping high, she threw a kunai at the back of one of the reflections. The boy took notice and his torso emerged from within the mirror, like some nightmare monster that mothers told their children about. Casually, he snatched the knife in midair and looked at it. But at the same time, a shuriken from the opposite direction struck the boy in the face. The force of blow made him stumble out the mirror completely and fall on the ground. A great cut marred the white mask. A cloud of smoke erupted next to him with a bang. As it cleared, a figure was gradually revealed.

_Looks like he woke up…_

_Number one hyperactive ninja…_

That idiot…show-off… Naruto-kun… 

"Uzumaki Naruto has finally arrived!" Naruto declared loudly with a smirk. If attention was what he wanted, he got it. Everyone turned his or her eyes on him now. Naruto continued boasting. "Now that I'm here, everything's going to be just fine. The main character of a story always shows up in these kinds of situations and instantly kicks the villain's ass!"

Kakashi looked at Naruto the same way as when Naruto challenged him face to face during survival training. _That idiot. What kind of entrance is that for a ninja?_ Zabuza didn't look even the slightest bit amused and before anyone could stop him, threw a handful of shuriken at Naruto. The masked boy followed his master's actions and threw a handful of his own needles at Naruto. But to everyone's surprise, the needles intercepted every one of the shuriken.

Zabuza glared at Haku, whose masked face revealed nothing. "Haku, what is the meaning of this?" Haku didn't flinch the slightest under the murderous glare.

"Zabuza-san, please let me fight them my way." Haku sounded humble and respectful, but his voice was firm and adamant. There seemed to be a power struggle between the master and the student for a second but in the end, Zabuza backed down.

"So you don't want me to interfere? You're as soft as always." Zabuza chided him. _Soft? _Inside the cage of mirrors, Sasuke pondered Zabuza's words. The boy had been attacking him with needles non-stop, but not one of them struck a vital part of his body. _Why is he trying not to kill me?_ More importantly, he couldn't figure out the boy's bizarre jutsu. He knew the boy was attacking him through the mirrors but he didn't know how. How did he merge into the mirrors and suddenly attack him from every direction? _Oh well, with me attacking from the inside and Naruto on the outside…_

"Hey, I came inside just to save you."

Standing outside the dome of ice, Kakashi listened as Sasuke for once lost his self-control and started shouting in Naruto's face.

"You idiot! If you're a ninja then try using your head!"

"What did you say?!" Naruto shouted back, unfazed, unapologetic and rather indignant. "I came in here to save you and this is the thanks I get?!"

"Why did you have to come inside the mirrors…!" Sasuke could tell that Naruto just didn't get it and just gave up explaining. "Damn it! I don't even care anymore! You're just an idiot!"

_Well, that's Naruto for you. He came to help and yet ended up making things worse._ Kakashi sighed. Meanwhile, Haku stepped back into one of the mirror, his body eerily fusing into the ice until he was nothing more than a reflection to Naruto and Sasuke.

_All right, he's over there._ Sasuke readied himself to attack the reflection in front of him when it disappeared in a flash. A voice called out from behind. "Over here." Sasuke turned around and looked. _He moved!_ He still didn't know what purpose the mirrors served, but he knew what he had to do.

"Katon…" _If those mirror are just made of ice… _"Goukakyou no Jutsu!" Fire spat out from Sasuke's mouth and engulfed the small, confined area that he was trapped in. It covered over the surface of the mirror, obscuring them from view. To his surprise, the flames died down only to reveal the mirrors as intact as before, with the living reflection of the masked boy silently staring back at him.

"That didn't work at all!" Naruto screamed at Sasuke petulantly.

"This ice can't be melted by that level of fire." He stated calmly to the bewildered boys. Without warning, the both of them felt as if something struck them. They flew back several feet and landed on their backs. But the masked figure didn't even look like he moved. Such was his speed. "Trying to track me with your eyes is impossible. I'll never be caught."

Haku's reflection stared down at them from every mirror. But Naruto wasn't so easily deterred. He stubbornly stood his ground. "Kage Buushin no Jutsu!"

"Don't!" Sasuke try to warn him, but Naruto didn't listen. All the clones leapt into action, pouncing unto the mirrored reflections. _I'll get the real one even if I have to crush them all!_ All of them had their fists ready to deliver a mighty punch.

Haku didn't give them the chance.

From Sasuke's perspective, one second the clones were leaping at their targets with fists raised and screaming loudly. The next second, all of them popped simultaneously like balloons while the real Naruto fell to the ground bleeding. There wasn't even a blur of movement.

"This jutsu lets me move almost instantaneously through these mirrors." Haku explained to them. There was only one reflection now, directly in front of them. "From my perspective, it looks like you two are standing still."

_I knew it._ "For that kid to have a jutsu like that…" Kakashi said while facing Zabuza. "He has a _kekkei genkai_!"

_A kekkei genkai? The same as my byakugan?!_ Hinata was startled by the revelation.

"So what?!" Naruto growled defiantly at Haku, awkwardly picking himself off the ground after he had been sent crashing down with a thud. "I refuse to die here. I still have a dream to fulfill. The dream to become the Hokage and make the villagers recognize me!"

_Dream?_ Haku hesitated, lost in thought. "For me, being a shinobi is hard. If it was possible, I would not have to kill you, nor would you have to kill me. But if you keep on fighting me, I'll kill the compassion in my heart with a blade and become a shinobi."

Haku's voice became hard as he continued to speak. "This bridge is a battlefield of dreams. I will fight for my dream. You will fight for yours. Please don't hate me." He apologized in advance, knowing the lives he would have to cut short today, and accepting that burden on his soul. "I want to protect someone important to me. I want to fight for him, to make his dreams come true. That is my dream."

The voice grew harder still, becoming a death sentence. "For that dream, I can make myself a ninja. I will kill you." He brandished his long needles in front of him as a challenge.

And the two of them, with determined eyes and humorless grins, answered it.

-----

"Naruto-kun! Sasuke-san! Do your best!" Hinata tried to be optimistic about her teammates. With their current situation, Hinata felt that cheering was the only thing she and Kakashi-sensei could do.

"Stop it, Hinata." Kakashi ordered her. "Don't goad them."

"Sensei?" She asked, confused.

"Even if they somehow defeat that jutsu, they can't beat that boy." He told her quietly.

"What do you mean?" Hinata asked again. In front of them, Zabuza chuckled at her ignorance.

"They don't have the strength yet to kill their hearts and kill another person." He explained bluntly to her. "That boy knows the pain of being a shinobi."

"That's right." Zabuza spoke up. "A real ninja can't be raised in a village as peaceful as yours. You miss out on the most important experience for a ninja, killing another person."

_I have to help them, fast. _"Sorry Zabuza, but I'm going to end our fight in an instant, right now." Kakashi pulled off the part of his mask that hid his sharingan from view. Yet Zabuza made no move to stop him.

"The sharingan again, eh?" Zabuza remarked. "Shinobi aren't supposed to show their ultimate technique to the same enemy twice. Cheapens the value."

"Don't worry, there won't be a third time."

"You're right, there won't." Zabuza replied, twisting the meaning of the words. He glanced at the two of them in his way. "Heh, sharingan. Byakugan. Doesn't matter. You said it yourself, didn't you Kakashi? 'The same jutsu won't work on me twice'." His hands formed a single seal.

"Ninpou: Kirigakure no Jutsu." As Zabuza spoke those words, his body faded into the mist. Realizing the danger, Kakashi jumped back and landed in front of Hinata and Tazuna. _If he meant what he said, I can't rely on him attacking Hinata first again. That means they're both potential first targets. And I can't rely on the bunshin tactic again either. _

"Hinata!" He asked her briskly. "Where is he?"

"He's jumped off the bridge, sensei. The left side." Hinata's eyes saw through the mist, easily finding their enemy. But she could not understand why Zabuza was moving away until she saw the water churning around him as he landed. _Those handseals…_"Sensei! He's using a water jutsu! I think it's the same one he used before!"

_A water dragon?! Since I can't see it the way that Hinata can, I can't counter that jutsu the way I did last time. _"Hinata, tell me how the dragon moves." Kakashi ordered her. "And get ready to run." _It's a convenient way to attack us all at once from a distance with no risk. I need to at least know from what direction it'll attack from._

The sound of water clashing continued from their left side. "Sensei, he's sending it directly over us." Hinata reported. Kakashi frowned. And overhead attack with that much force would probably shatter even the concrete bridge. It could hit all three of them while flushing out anybody possibly hiding underneath the ground.

"Run, now!" Kakashi shouted. The three of them ran back across the bridge for all they were worth. Hinata saw the water dragon descend upon them from behind.

"It's coming!" She warned them. "Right behind us!" But the expected clash of water on concrete never happened. Instead, the dragon changed course and pursued them directly. Kakashi quickly stopped and turned around. _Right behind us? _

"Doton: Doryuuheki!" Kakashi opened his mouth and spat out a trail of mud on the ground. The mud twitched like a living thing and rapidly formed a giant wall in front of him. As that happened, he pondered why Zabuza hadn't just sent the dragon from underneath them instead of attacking in a way that could be easily blocked. _He wouldn't have done it unless he had something to gain…_ "Hinata! Tazuna-san! Stop!" Kakashi shouted back frantically. Using chakra from his legs, Kakashi jumped toward them with a speed that no ordinary human being could have. _Please, let me make it in time._

Just as he thought, Zabuza appeared in front of Hinata and Tazuna, his eyes smiling victoriously, his arms always raised for a swing that would decapitate both of them. He appeared in front of them before Hinata even had a chance to gasp. Kakashi saw the beginning of the swing as clearly as black on white with his sharingan eye. _Yes, I'll make it…_

The sound of the water dragon crashing against the wall of stone drowned out all other noise. And then it subsided, leaving a ghastly silence. Kakashi stood in front of Tazuna and Hinata, clutching his chest. In front of him was Zabuza, with his sword dripping blood, Kakashi's blood.

"Kakashi-sensei!" Hinata shouted out. She and Tazuna stared in horror.

"You were too slow to guard yourself." Zabuza taunted Kakashi, who looked like he was struggling to keep himself upright. "Did your need to help those brat students of yours clog up your mind even worse than the mist clogs your sharingan?"

Kakashi was in no shape to give Zabuza a proper response up his ass.

"End our fight in an instant? Oh no, we can't have that." Zabuza continued. "It's more fun this way. There's no need to cloud your judgment by worrying about those kids. Haku's probably killed them off already. And you'll be joining them soon. You can apologize to them for being too weak to help them in the next world." Zabuza laughed and slowly faded into the mist again. His mocking laughter became an echo, and then nothing.

"Hinata, what's going on in those mirrors?" Kakashi asked her when he was finally able to speak normally.

"I understand, sensei. Give me a minute." Hinata focused on the area where her two teammates were, her vision actively cutting through the mist as she concentration and her range of vision increased. And then her heart stopped. "Kakashi-sensei…Naruto-kun, he's down!"

"What?!" Kakashi shouted at her in alarm.

"I-I can't tell if…I can't tell." Hinata didn't have the strength to finish that statement. "But Sasuke-san's still fighting. He…oh, no…"

"What happened!? Hinata!" Kakashi demanded. But Hinata seemed frozen in place, unable to answer him. "Damn it!"

"See?" Zabuza's voice came from the mist. "Didn't I tell you those two were good as dead already?" Kakashi growled.

"And didn't _I_ tell you I would end this fight in an instant?" Kakashi angrily replied. He opened a small pouch on his vest and a small scroll popped out. With a flourish, he unsealed it and swiped the contents with the blood from his wound. Then, the scroll sealed itself up again and Kakashi trapped it between his thumbs and this hands as he formed seals. "Ninpou Kuchiyose: Doton – Tsuiga no Jutsu!"

Kakashi slammed his hands down on the ground. Words literally crawled from the scroll like snakes and pierced into the ground.

"Whatever you do, it's useless." Zabuza said to him from an unknown location in the mist, his eyes closed against the sharingan's genjutsu powers. "Only the girl actually knows where I am, and I don't think she's listening right now."

"Wrong."

The only warning that Zabuza had was the sound of concrete crumbling beneath him. But by then it was already too late as seven dogs of varying size held him immobile with their jaws. The largest one wore a spiked collar and was bigger than he was. Kakashi quickly turned to Hinata.

"Hinata! Snap out of it!" Kakashi shouted at her. "Just go and help them. Don't worry about Zabuza, I can take care of it now. Go!" Without a word, Hinata bolted from him. Now, he turned his attention back on the thinning mist.

"The only reason I let you wound me was so this could happen." Kakashi called out to the immobilized Zabuza, who was still hidden from view. "Say hello to my cute nin-dogs. Their sense of smell is so powerful that they had no trouble tracking you by the blood on your sword."

The mist thinned and the two men could see each other clearly once more. This time, Zabuza was the one who was silent.

"You thought wrong." Kakashi told him. "My dogs, your ears, Hinata's eyes. We each had a way of seeing through the mist. Now, your future is death."

-----

She just ran.

Hinata cared about nothing but the scene unfolding in front of her eyes, and saw nothing else. The ruined and broken wall that Kakashi had made appeared quickly in front of her. She scaled it without a thought, as if it wasn't there.

To her, the entire world consisted of Naruto's crumpled form on the ground, struck by needles, while Sasuke stood in front of him bleeding. She watched, as Naruto awake and got up, miraculously not dead. Then the faint taste of good feelings died in her mouth as Sasuke was the one who fell before her eyes. She willed her legs to run faster but it didn't seem to work no matter what she wanted to happen. And then the masked boy got up as well.

_That boy, I…_

Hinata could see the boy rising as he stood over Naruto. By some random chance, his back was turned to her. Hinata didn't believe it by was random chance.

As Naruto shed his tears while Sasuke died, Hinata's focus shifted to the boy behind it all. _He _was the reason why Zabuza escaped the first time. _He _was the reason why Gatou could hold this country hostage. _He _was the reason why her team…

_I'm…_

She saw nothing as the mist parted and the house of mirrors made of ice was so close that it would have been visible even to normal eyes. She felt nothing as the chakra in the air exploded as Naruto's seal bent under the pressure of his grief and anger.

"_**I'm going to kill you!"**_ An enraged Naruto charged forward at Haku, running on all fours. And yet, Haku was unaware of another danger behind him as he braced himself to receive Naruto's blow. Hinata was absolutely aware of the narrow space between two of the mirrors that Haku was standing in front of. It was just wide enough for an arm to slip in and reach him.

A blast of red chakra touched the mirrors and the mirrors wilted. Ice turned to water, and water turned to steam. Steam blew loudly outwards from the house of mirrors as if a play had reached some great climax. And perhaps it had, as Hinata struck.

A tremendous irony had just occurred, but none of the three, so caught up in the moment, realized it.

-----

**To be Continued**


	12. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11: Triumphs and Lamentations **

**-----**

Normally, a blow of such force wouldn't have been anywhere near fatal, being just a simple, open-palm strike to the back, only enough to make someone stagger backward. The blow that struck Haku in the back was anything but normal. Inside of him, the organs and blood vessels that made up every human's body suddenly convulsed and shuddered. Haku staggered, his body paralyzed as it died. He fell to the ground with a thud.

Behind him, Hinata dimly watched as the boy fell. She let out the breath she had been holding. And just like that, she suddenly deflated, her thrusting arm trembled as the realization of what she had done hit her. _I did that. I killed that boy. _

Naruto too, was shocked by the turn of events. "Hinata?" He muttered to himself. And as the bloodlust in his mind was dispelled, the unnatural power that coursed through his body retracted back to its source. His eyes reverted from feral, blood red slits back to his normal blue. "Hey! Hinata!"

"Naruto-kun?" Hinata answered him uncertainly. Her mind was still on what she had done but reality quickly took hold. She turned toward the other boy lying on the floor. "Is he…?"

Naruto turned around to what Hinata was looking at. "Yeah. Sasuke…he's…" A lump formed in his throat. Hinata stepped into the house of mirrors, and together, they both walked over to Sasuke's body.

"I know." Hinata didn't know what else to say. That if only she had ran faster? If only…_ If only I killed him sooner? Is that it?_ She could only say the obvious. "I saw it."

But Naruto was unaware of her internal conflicts. His mind was preoccupied by its own turmoil. "I didn't even know him. We hated each other so much, but he…he saved my life. I think I would have done the same." There, he'd said it. He just admitted that the two of them had been more than rivals. "And now, he's dead."

A wheezing cough came from behind him. Hinata and Naruto both quickly turned around, startled but ready to fight. But there was only the masked boy, gasping futilely for his life.

"No..."

-----

"My future is death?" Zabuza said arrogantly, undeterred by the trap he had fallen into. "I'm sick of your bullshit."

"Don't be foolish. There's nothing you can do in this situation. You _will_ die." Kakashi told him. "Zabuza, do you think that I have survived so long just because of the sharingan? This time, I'll show you something that's no copy, but my own jutsu." Kakashi formed seals until blue chakra crackled and sparked in his left hand.

"Raikiri!"

_What? Enough chakra that it's visible around his hand!_ Zabuza thought. Indeed, he had never seen this jutsu before.

"You are too dangerous." Kakashi told him, the blue pulsating light from his hand highlighting his face. "Tazuna-san, who you're trying to kill, is this country's courage. The bridge he's building is this country's hope. Your ambition sacrifices too many people. That's not what a shinobi should be doing."

"I don't care about that." Zabuza retorted, sick of Kakashi's boring moralizing. "I fight for my own ideals, and that won't change!"

"I'll ask one more time," Kakashi said. "Give up. Your future is death." He waited for a response, but Zabuza said nothing and just stood there, impotent yet defiant.

"No, huh?" Kakashi charged toward, the left hand ready to deliver a lethal thrust. Zabuza saw him coming closer. _So it's death after all?_ He wondered. _So what? I have no regrets. _A few steps away now, Kakashi lunged forward, and thrust out his left hand like a sword.

_Goodbye, Haku. Live well._

-----

"No…" He repeated. " I was…" It sounded like he had more to say, but another cough cut him off. Naruto's hands balled into fists. He angrily stormed over to Haku's side and roughly flipped him over. Then, kneeling, Naruto tore the mask off his face. The unmasked face shocked much of his anger away.

"It's you." Hinata said, recognizing him. "You're that boy from…"

"It was _you_?!" Naruto asked, angry and confused as well as betrayed. "But you were…I mean, you could have killed me then…_Why_?!"

Haku desperately tried to speak, but he could barely open his mouth as his body shook and convulsed while he coughed up blood. Finally, he gathered the breath necessary to speak, just one word, because that was all he could say. His voice was no louder than a whisper.

"Alive…"

And then, he truly stopped moving. Naruto and Hinata were left in silence once more.

"Alive?" Hinata repeated Haku's last word. "What did he mean?"

"I don't know." Naruto answered her, feeling numb and drained by the turn of events. "I don't know." Both of them heard a loud crack. They looked around and saw widening cracks forming on every mirror, as if without Haku, there wasn't anything holding them together anymore. With a final crack, the mirrors fell apart with a cacophony. Naruto and Hinata covered their heads as blocks of ice rained down across the ground. The two of them got up, brushing the ice off themselves.

"There." Hinata pointed toward Kakashi's direction. Both of them saw Zabuza slump and fall, the dogs holding him up vanishing in puffs of smoke. Kakashi stood over him solemnly looking down. His left arm was covered in blood. "They're dead. They're both dead."

"Yeah." Naruto answered her softly.

"Well, well, so they both died? How disappointing." A unexpected voice called out from behind them. "I thought that little devil would kill at one of you, but I guess I have to do it myself." Everyone looked behind and was surprised to see a small army of armed thugs, with a short man in a business suit in front of them.

"Gatou." Tazuna said softly.

Kakashi looked at the boat docked with the unfinished end of the bridge. _They must have snuck onto the bridge while everyone was preoccupied._ Then he focused on Naruto and Hinata. Naruto didn't look or walk like he was injured at all, even though his clothes looked like they've been punctured everywhere by needles. But he supposed that wasn't surprising, considering that this was Naruto. Sasuke though… _At least I didn't lose both of them._ He solemnly told himself.

"All right, men!" Gatou shouted while pointing his cane toward Tazuna and the ninja in front of him. "Kill them all and you get paid. It's that simple. Now charge!" The mob shouted in glee and brandished their weapons, eager to do violence for cash.

_I have to diffuse this quickly._ Kakashi thought as he watched the thugs charge past Gatou toward them. _And I know how too._ "Ninpou: Kirigakure no Jutsu!" A second time today, thick mist formed out of thin air, obscuring everything more than a few feet away from view. The mob's roar of bloodlust was reduced to confused and worried murmurs as the charge slowed and then halted in its tracks in confusion. Then, just as quickly, the mist dissipated.

"Over here." Kakashi's voice called out from behind them. The mob turned around. Of all of them, Gatou was the most surprised. Understandable, considering that Kakashi was standing behind him with a knife at his throat. "Okay, here's what's going to happen. _You_ call off the men, and _I _won't have to kill anyone else today."

In front of him, Gatou gulped. Suddenly having his life threatened by an armed and dangerous man deflated all the bravado out of him. "D-Do it! Men, stand down!" Generally, if a snake's head was chopped off, the body dies. The same happened here. The mob just stood there, impotent. Then, someone decided he had a better idea.

"To hell with this!" He yelled. "Let's just loot the damned town!" And just as suddenly, the mob was back in action under a new direction. They cheered and started charging forward once more.

"No! Stop!" Gatou commanded them futilely. His life was on the line. Kakashi growled in frustration.

"Naruto! Hinata! Get ready! Tazuna-san, get be-" Kakashi stopped in mid-sentence as the mob stopped again. In front of them, there stood another mob. But this mob wasn't a pack of would-be looters. Instead, they were dressed as ordinary fishermen and construction workers, armed with an assortment of weapons. There were just as many spears as there were shovels, picks, pitchforks, and even wooden clubs and oars. Nonetheless, they resolutely stood their ground. And in front of them was one familiar boy armed with a crossbow.

"Inari!" Naruto shouted happily.

"A hero shows up at the last second, right?" Inari answered with a grin. The mob of looters grew indecisive once again. They came looking for an easy meal ticket and just didn't have the will to put their life on the line. The villagers disagreed on that.

"If you take one more step toward our island, we'll stop you with everything we've got!" One of them shouted. Watching from the sidelines, Tazuna was moved to tears by the sight of these people, whom he all knew._Everyone…_ How long had he been wishing for something like this? For everyone to grow a backbone and fight instead of letting Gatou get away with everything? _I'm proud of them. I'm proud of my people. Especially you, Inari. _

Watching the two sides at a standstill, Kakashi turned to Gatou. "Order them to get back on the boats, now." Gatou was all too glad to comply with him.

"Men! Listen to me!" Gatou shouted fearfully. "Get back on the boats! I'll pay you! Just go back!" And with that, the mob made up their mind. A few grumbled that they didn't get to spill any blood, but most just shrugged. If they got paid, so what? They marched back to the edge of the bridge, where their boat was anchored, and boarded. Watching them, the citizens on the opposite side cheered. They had won!

Unnoticed by everyone, Sasuke opened his eyes. The first thing he saw were the backs of his two teammates as they watched the crowd cheering. "Naruto…Hinata…"

Startled, they both turned around. For a second, they stared at him, shocked. "Sasuke!" Naruto shouted and gave him a great bear hug. "You're alive!" Sasuke winced from the sharp pain as Naruto drove the needles further into his body.

"Get off of me." He demanded without much energy. "You idiot." Naruto just laughed and moved off, too happy to feel apologetic. Hinata smiled. _Alive…I get it now. That was what the boy was trying to say. _Then her eyes widened. _Wait a minute…_

_So, Sasuke was alive after all. _Kakashi smiled. "A happy ending after all." He noticed a couple of villagers walking purposefully towards him. They seemed to be paying a lot of attention to his hostage. He turned to Gatou. "Well, maybe not for you." Unnoticed by all, Hinata silently stood, her mind oblivious to the noise around her.

_He was trying not to kill us from the start._ That realization rocked Hinata. _He could have, I know it._ _That day back in the forest…_

_-----_

Flashback… 

"It's nothing. I'm glad to help you. It's good that you care about your comrades. In this world, sometimes those people are the only ones who you have to care about. Nobody else matters." The girl looked down, deep in thought with a sad smile. Then she brightened and walked away. "Goodbye. Let us meet again someday."

_-----_

…_And later at the bridge…_

-----

Flashback… 

_Zabuza glared at Haku, whose masked face revealed nothing. "Haku, what is the meaning of this?" Haku didn't flinch the slightest under the murderous glare._

"_Zabuza-san, please let me fight them my way." Haku sounded humble and respectful, but his voice was firm and adamant. There seemed to be a power struggle between the master and the student for a second but in the end, Zabuza backed down._

"_So you don't want me to interfere? You're as soft as always." Zabuza chided him._

-----

Mercy, she realized. He had shown them mercy. But they didn't know that. They couldn't have known that. _It didn't have to end this way. I did what I thought was right. But… _Instead, she had been the one to kill him. She of all people.

_And so what? _Another part of her brain muttered. _What's so innocent about you?_

Hinata remembered how the thought of Naruto dying had brought out something in her that she didn't think she had. She remembered the predatory rush she had felt when each stride took her closer and closer to the boy's unsuspecting back. And the immense satisfaction as the blow was delivered perfectly and the boy suddenly staggered and fell. It was only later when the rational part of her realized what she had done that the experience had left her feeling disturbed. But she still believed that she had done something that was necessary. But now, who knew?

_If only, if only, if only…_ Doubt crept into her mind like a slow rot. Behind her, the cheering went on.

-----

**To be Continued **


	13. epilogue

**Epilogue: I Can Kill**

**-----**

The two makeshift graves didn't have the pretentious, almost gaudy air that the graves of rich had. Nor were they a clumsy attempt to bury the dead as fast as possible. Looking at them, Kakashi was fairly proud of the job his team had done. The crosses over the graves stood straight and neat. Behind them, the massive sword had its tip buried into the earth, jutting straight out up to the height of a man's head. The graves did their jobs. If anyone passing by looked upon them, they'd know that two people had been buried here, and that the deceased had been buried with dignity.

They had tried to do it right.

Around him, his students stood watching the end result of their labor. There were only two of them here with him. Sasuke was back at Tazuna's house in bed. For that matter, Kakashi himself should still be in bed, but he'd managed to get himself walking again, albeit on crutches. Hinata hung a wreath of flowers over both crosses and stepped back. Naruto was following a fly buzzing around him without much interest. It looked like neither of them had anything to say after what had happened three days ago. After a while, Kakashi decided that the somberness in the atmosphere was too much and took the initiative.

"Well, with Gatou under custody, the construction should go right on schedule." He started talking, startling them. "The rest of this mission should go pretty smoothly."

"What will happen to him?" Naruto asked.

"Gatou, you mean?" Kakashi asked. Naruto nodded. "Well, who knows? The villagers didn't let him sail away with his men so he's at their mercy. In any case, that's not our problem."

"Do you think they'll…?" Hinata asked, but her voice trailed off.

"Like I said, who knows?" Kakashi left it at that. Hinata considered that for a second, and then just nodded. Naruto didn't say anything else, so Kakashi guessed that answer satisfied him. Now that he had their attention, he decided to get to the heart of the matter. "Although it's a little premature, I think now's a good time to congratulate you all on a mission well done."

Kakashi noticed that the gazes from his audience grew clouded. Hinata looked away. And Naruto frowned. "How can you say that, Kakash-sensei?!" He asked. "Well done? We almost died! And…" _And people died who didn't have to die, right Naruto?_

"Well, there is that." Kakashi admitted. "But remember what that boy said. That fight was fought over a 'battlefield of dreams'. In that kind of situation, both sides realize that they have to fight each other or lose what's precious to them. That boy showed mercy on you, Naruto. But that's not what killed him. He was killed because someone else wanted to protect something precious, the only way possible." He gave Hinata a knowing glance, and she returned it. "And don't forget that ultimately that their goal was to kill our client and leave this town the way it was. I know that all this stuff I've said is hard mto swallow right now. Trust me, I _know_ that. But to be a ninja, you have to at least accept it, even if you don't like it."

"I know that." Naruto answered, his voice softer than before. Kakashi took that as a good sign "I can understand it, but it hardly seems…fair. He didn't even want to kill us but he died anyway. I just…wish I could talk to him, understand him."

"Well, I'm sorry, Naruto. I can't help you with that." Kakashi said. "But I can answer your original question. First of all, you deserve to be congratulated because you _can_ swallow what I just told you. You deserve to be congratulated because from what Hinata tells me, you would have done for him what Sasuke did for you."

Naruto looked a little uncomfortable hearing that. _Oops,_ Kakashi thought. _Did I just trip over something I shouldn't have?_ He continued, "And, you deserve to be congratulated because it looks like you kept the promise you made about never running away. All three of you have grown, as individuals, and as a team. I wish that it didn't have to come at a risk to your lives, but I am proud of what you have accomplished."

Reminded of that promise, Naruto flexed his left hand. Despite the gnawing feeling that what happened to that boy Haku was _wrong, _Naruto founded that he could agree with Kakashi. He wasn't the person he had been before. He wasn't the boy without a home who did everything for attention from everybody else. He wasn't the ninja who had just been put on a team and had no idea where he fit in. Now…_Now I'm Uzumaki Naruto, Team 7._ "Well, when you put it like that," he grinned, and then laughed. "Hell yeah, we deserve some recognition!"

Naruto's good spirits were infectious. Hinata smiled, the pride she felt dispelling some of the other thoughts in her mind. Kakashi grinned too. "All right then, let's go back." He commanded. "Tazuna-san's going to work in about an hour. And you two better not be late." He started walking back to the house. Naruto followed him. Hinata didn't. "Hinata?"

"I'd like to stay a little longer." Hinata explained. "I swear I won't be late."

"All right, just as long as you're not." Kakashi answered. "Come on, Naruto."

Leaving Hinata behind, the two of them went their way. Now, standing in front of the graves by herself, Hinata reached into her jacket and pulled out the white mask that had been forgotten by everyone else after the excitement was over. She gripped it with both hands and looked at the scarred face.

Yes, it was true. Kakashi might not have been speaking to her directly, but his words reached her nonetheless. Killing that boy had changed her. She remembered what Kakashi had told her, about empathy and happiness. And she remembered how she had gone off to bed the night after everything that had happened on that bridge, for the first time seriously wondering if she wanted to go down the path that everything in the village had prepared her to do so. Killing that boy had hurt her, worse than she had imagined killing someone would, because it had made her question herself. Like Naruto, she too thought about the unfairness of that boy dying. And so, she struggled with the question of whether it had been necessary while all around her, the gloom that hung over the town turned into spectacular displays of fireworks that cheerfully whistled and boomed every night.

She never questioned her reasons for doing it, but that conviction alone didn't make her feel any better. And so, she had gone with the motions while eating, guarding Tazuna, or grocery shopping. Meanwhile, her mind was elsewhere and in turmoil. Nobody else seemed to notice. Kakashi and Sasuke stayed in bed while Naruto seemed to be very distant and lost in thought himself. And everyone else in this town was obliviously happy. She would have liked to talk with Kakashi, but he was always in bed, resting. She would have liked to talk with Naruto too, but every time she tried to ask him what was wrong, he always denied that there was something bothering him.

Now, after listening to Kakashi speak, she felt that she had the will to make a choice. Hinata flipped the mask around and imagined wearing it, looking through it.

_This mask, it symbolizes you. It is what I want to be. I want your power. I want the strength of will that lets you be at peace with what you are no matter what ugly things you have to do. I want it because I want to go down the same path you and Kakashi-sensei and others older than me have gone down. I want to be you, because I want to fight for _my_ dream. I want to protect someone important to _me_. I want to be there, and see that his dream comes true. That is my dream. And for that dream…_

"I can do it, and I can live with myself." She muttered. "I can kill." Resolute, she turned around and walked away.

**----- The End -----**

**Author's Note: **To everyone who have read this and liked it, I glad that you did. Yes, this story is ending here. I've covered what I set out to do when I began this story. But by no means do I intend to leave it alone. I will write a sequel, right after I finish another pet project of mine. Now that I've set the stage, I intend to diverge more from the timeline as events occur. Stay tuned for the next adventures of Hinata and Team 7!


End file.
